Delphi’s performance at the 2011 World Cup Final, where she finished sixth, still rates as the best performance by a New Zealand-bred show jumper, anywhere.
She and her rider, Katie McVean (now Laurie) began their competition partnership on the New Zealand circuit. The mare, who was bred by Katie’s dad Jeff out of his legendary World Cup mare Flower Power by the Holstein stallion Liocaylon, was produced from scratch by Katie, and was only lightly campaigned as a young horse. She really started to turn heads in 2009, when she won the Seven-year-old title at the Horse of the Year Show.
Just a year later, Delphi had added the NZ National Championship, the Olympic Cup, and the World Cup (NZ) series to her name, and she and Katie went to Canada, where they put in some solid performance at Spruce Meadows, before joining the New Zealand team at the World Equestrian Games in Lexington.
Up until then, we’d had minimal representation in the WEG show jumping arenas. Tony Webb and Reservation competed in Stockholm in 1990, and Maurice Beatson in 1994 with My Irish Embassy – neither with much luck.
The team that went to Lexington in 2010 was a first for this country. Its members were Maurice Beatson with Apollo van Evendael, Samantha McIntosh with Loxley 38, Guy Thomas with Peterbilt and Katie with Delphi. Coincidentally, Peterbilt and Delphi were both homebred by their riders’ fathers, and both were by Liocaylon.
Competition began with a speed round: Maurice and Guy had five rails each and Sam had two, but 23-year-old Katie and Delphi – who was only nine – went clear. They finished the day in 17th spot from a field of 121.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so nervous in my life,” Katie said after her round. “I’m still shaking, but she was just brilliant. She was a little hot but jumped so well – she’s good when she’s like that, really focused and ready to go.”
The following day’s track was bigger, and Guy retired Peterbilt after another five rails; the horse had missed three weeks’ work because of an abscess and was not at his best. Maurice, too, had five – including a foot in the water – and with Delphi proving a little difficult, Katie had a disappointing three. Sam McIntosh and Loxley were our best performers with a foot in the water and four faults at the final rail.
The team was now out of contention, 21st out of 27, but both Katie and Sam went into the qualifier for the individual championship. Sam was lying 58th at that point, and Katie 68th.
Sam and Loxley had two rails over Conrad Homfeld’s whopping track, one of which was a heartbreaker at the final fence, putting them out of the running.
Katie opted for a safe clear, adding a stride in each of the lines to keep Delphi calm and careful. She finished with two time faults, but was still hopeful of a place in the individual final.
It was a long wait until the end of the evening session to find out whether she’d qualified – sadly, she didn’t. She and Delphi were 38th overall; but they had made history by completing this country’s first two clear rounds at a WEG.
It was the first time the pair had competed against a truly elite international line-up, and Delphi had caught the eyes of buyers from around the world.
The World Cup Finals of 2011 were in Leipzig, Germany, and as Delphi began to foot it with the best of the best, the phone rang off the hook with agents, and the offers poured in.
Delphi and Katie started the competition with a bang, clear and quick in the opening speed round. The top two-thirds qualified for the next stage, a two-round competition, which was eventually won by Christian Ahlmann on the stallion, Taloubet Z, with Olympic champion Eric Lamaze second on Hickstead.
Katie and Delphi were incredibly unlucky to nudge the last fence in the first of the two rounds, and in the second had a rail and a single time fault, which was the difference between second and sixth.
Although Katie had planned to aim Delphi at the London Olympics in 2012, the multi-millions on the table by then were impossible to resist, and Delphi was sold to Saudi Arabia for an undisclosed sum; the NZ Herald speculated that it was at least $10 million.
It’s unclear why Delphi’s stellar competition career did not continue with her new owners. However, Katie recently shared the news that Delphi is now the proud mother of a beautiful foal by Mumbai. Katie, meanwhile, has changed nationality and now rides for Australia; she and her husband Jackson are based in Canada.
