OCALA, Fla.--Irish Olympian Shane Sweetnam on Coriaan van Klapscheut Z won the $62,500 Winning Round CSI5*-W on Friday.Feb. 13 at the World Equestrian Festival.
Shane Sweetnam on Cotiaan van Klapscheut (Photo by Andrew Ryback)With the Winning Round format, from 33 entries12 were clear, but only the top 10 qualified for the second round.
Over the course designed by Bernardo Costa Cabral of Portugal, only three were clean in the jump-off, with Sweetnam winning in a time of 35.80 seconds.
McLain Ward on Lestro vd Valckenborg, finished second, clean in 37.22 seconds, and Stephanie Macieira of Brazil on Toulouse van’t Prinsenveld Z was third, clean in 38.48 seconds.
Richie Vogel of Germany on Michael Jackson W was the fastest of those with four faults, finishing fourth in the fastest overall time of 35.55,
Tanimara Maria Macari Carrillo of Mexico on Queenala T was fifth, four faults in 36.83, and Jacob Pope on Jecibelle was sixth, four faults in 38.41.
“I wanted to win, but it was hard to gauge what needed to be done to win,” said Sweetnam. “There was a turn to the second-to-last jump, which I wasn’t in love with. I sort of took a gamble there to go around and be fast, then do one less stride to the last jump. It worked out well. It was just a little bit of an awkward jump-off, so I wasn’t sure it would be enough. Thankfully it was.”
SWEETNAM started riding Coriaan in FEI classes a year ago, and now has 18 top five FEI finishes, including a four-star grand prix win two weeks ago.
“He was still quite green last year, but got some really good results all year,” he said. “The end of last year he won a good grand prix, and then another at his last show, so now we expect a lot from him.”
Sweetnam is another top rider who has added more weeks at WEC – Ocala to his schedule in 2026.
“This year I wanted to do more,” he said. “We love it here. I came with some greener horses last week. I really do feel this is like a championship ring with championship jumps. Some of the horses are nervous at the start, but they really do learn a lot in that ring. It definitely helps them step up the gears and be ready for whatever comes next.”
