THERMAL, Calif.--McLain Ward on First Lady, for the second year in a row, won the $182,000 Visit Greater Palm Springs CSI5* Qualifier on Thursday, Dec. 4.
McLain Ward on First Lady (Photo by High Desert Sport Photo)A field of 38 competed over the qualifying course designed by Alan Wade, and nine advanced to the jump-off.
As the fourth to go in the jump-off, Ward was clean and set the time to beat at 36.01 seconds.
Keri Potter and the very quick Kalimera van de Nethe Z went after Ward and had the best time of 34.89 seconds, but a rail down left her fourth.
Nina Mallevaey of France on Dynastie de Beaufour placed second in 41.59 seconds, and Ireland’s Conor Swail on Clonterm Obolensky was third.
“I was lucky to get to watch a few,” said Ward, who is currently ranked 11th in the world. “First Lady’s quick, not quite as fast as Keri’s mare, but it played out in our favor today. First Lady was out for a little while this summer with an injury, but she has come back really strong and been phenomenally consistent. She won the qualifier a Washington.The biggest shows, those are the competitions that we’ve been aiming for, and she’s just delivering week after week.”
“IT'S OBVIOUSLY a great class, a great competition because it’s great prize money here,” said Ward. “We are all very thrilled to be out here competing on the West Coast. It’s been phenomenal efforts by all of the organizers of these tournaments. This is a great tour, and you see the level of competition and riders showing that appreciation.”
The show is a part of the Major League Show Jumping series.
Ward's Roadrunner team includes Julien Anquetin of France, Erynn Ballard of Canada,, Ashlee Bond of Israel, Kaitlin Campbell and Gregory Wathelet of Belgium.
With one win already, Ward will now focus on Friday night’s $200,000 Major League Show Jumping Cabana Coast CSI5* Team Competition and Saturday evening’s $750,000 CSI5* Coachella Cup Grand Prix.
“We want to keep moving up in the MLSJ team rankings,” said Ward of the DIHP Roadrunners, who currently sit in fourth in the standings. “We had a team dinner last night and had a bit of motivation from our leaders, so we’re always fighting. We have brilliant riders on our team, but the tradeoff is, in the summer months or in the early part of the season, a lot of those riders are committed to championships and other events so maybe we’re a little light on the front end; we always finish strong!”
