copyright: Tish Quirk
It was Ladies night at the Rolex FEI World Cup Finals as Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum of Germany dominated the field of 36 to win the Rolex FEI World Cup Show Jumping Final II at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas on Shutterfly, owned by Octavia Farms LLC. Beat Mandli of Switzerland placed second on Ideo du Thot and Marco Kutscher of Germany and Cash were third.
The win moved Michaels-Beerbaum up from the eighth place in Thursday’s first round to tie with Steve Guerdat of Switzerland for the lead going into Sunday’s World Cup Final.
“That’s great!” said Michaels-Beerbaum of her current status. “It’s better than eighth! I knew I had to move up. I felt I had to get something done tonight.”
The win did not come easy. The Guilherme Jorge designed course yielded eight in the jump-off with the first four riders having rails down.
Kutscher set the standard going without fault in the jump-off in a time of 32.01 seconds. Then Mandli accepted the challenge and beat Kutscher’s time with a clean round jump-off score of 30.89. Michaels-Beerbaum was up next and jumped to the top of the leader board racing around on Shutterfly in a blistering time of 29.38 with two left to jump. Leopold van Asten of the Netherlands and Steve Guerdat of Switzerland tried but failed to go clear leaving Michaels-Beerbaum - the 2005 World Cup Champion - tied for the lead and in an excellent position for Sunday’s Final.
“The difference between 2005 and this year is that the relationship between Shutterfly and me is better than two years ago,” said Michaels-Beerbaum. “I wanted to show that here.”
A total of 28 riders go through to Sunday’s final challenge as one-third of the original start-list of 41 qualified for the closing competition.
The results of Friday’s World Cup Show Jumping class, combined with the results of Thursday’s opening competition, are used to set the starting lineup for Sunday’s final rounds determining this year’s Rolex FEI World Cup Show Jumping Champion. Saturday’s jumping lineup features the $75,000 Las Vegas Grand Prix for horses not competing in Sunday’s final round. In addition, the class is open to select other horses. This Grand Prix is a one round table “A” competition with four penalties for each knockdown or refusal. Those tied for first after the first round advance to the tie-breaking jump-off. The jump off is held against the clock to determine the winner.
Also on Saturday, the World Champion Hunter Rider World Cup Team Hunter Challenge will once again take place. Four top U.S. hunter riders will face four top European jumper riders on world class horses. In 2005, the U.S. team lost to the Europeans, so it will be a rematch not to be missed!
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