The 500,000 euro Grand Prix in week seven at the Winter Equestrian Festival

McLain Ward had saddled the 13-year-old Belgian High Star Hero for the highlight of the weekend, the 500,000 dollar Grand Prix of the Winter Equestrian Festival. The bay horse, bred by Luc Henry, is a son of I am Morhoeve’s Star, also known as Zazu. He in turn is a representative of the famous BWP-Prestatie line 34 (de Muze). In Germany, Ward and High Star Hero are known, amongst other things, because they were victorious once in Aachen last year and placed third once in the larger show jumping competitions at the CHIO Aachen. Today High Star Hero showed that he is capable of much more.

With McLain Ward, who took over from Australian Thaisa Erwin in 2024, High Star Hero was the first horse to clear the course from Andy Christiansen and Anthony Ambrosio today. Not too many colleagues joined him.

Next up were the winners of the last big event, Richard Vogel and Gangster Montdesir. They were joined by the Colombian Mark Bluman on the once highly successful Landon de Nyze with Kent Farrington, the Irish Olympic pair Shane Sweetnam/James Kann Cruz – like Vogel’s Gangster, a Kannan son – and the best female rider in the world at the moment, France’s number eight in the world rankings, Nina Mallevaey on Dynastie de Beaufour.

Vogel the fastest, but …

If there’s one rider who always delivers like a machine, it’s McLain Ward. Today was no exception. And it is well known that he can ride jump-offs. High Star Hero and he not only showed a flawless round, but also found the right balance between risk and safety in the jump-off. With a penalty-free time of 39.14 seconds, they set the bar for the competition.

Vogel, who had picked up a few tips from Ward in the past, put in a wonderful ride in the first round – fast, but well-considered and with a highly motivated gangster Montdesir under the saddle. The pair were also highly motivated in the jump-off and managed the feat of taking almost two seconds off Ward. However, a careless mistake threw them back to fourth place in the end.

Mark Bluman rode Landon to second place in 39.71 seconds ahead of Sweetnam and his gray horse, who were two tenths of a second slower. Nina Mallevaey was faster than both of them, but also had a knockdown. Ward was therefore the winner.

He later said: “They are all either super-fast riders or have extremely fast horses, and I knew that they would risk everything to win. So I had to put my hopefully promising plan into action. And the horse [High Star Hero] has responded beautifully – he’s been jumping really great for about six months. I couldn’t have wished for better.”

Two more pairs for GER

The two other German riders had nothing to do with the decision this time. Olympic champion Christian Kukuk is making friends with several new horses these days, including the eleven-year-old French mare Fantasia de Wy by Armitage’s Boy. She was previously ridden by Kathrin Stolmeijer, mainly at CSI2* level. Today was her debut over 1.60 meters, which falls into the “gaining experience” category with four knockdowns.

René Dittmer and Corsica X did not have a good day at all. Normally, the 13-year-old Holstein Connor daughter is one of the horses with a chance of winning a ribbon. But today she shied away from something she had spotted before the starting line and mounted. Dittmer skillfully steered her to the left to prevent her from breaking through the light barrier and succeeded in sending Corsica back to the front. But when several poles also fell in the course, he sensibly gave up. Another time.

You can find all the results from Wellington here.