She won here two years ago, and today, in the second leg of the Rolex FEI World Cup Show Jumping Final, Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum showed that she’s ready to win again.  With a convincing win today, April 20, in the grand prix leg of the Final, she shares the lead in the standings aboard Shutterfly. 

But Steve Guerdat isn’t going to make it easy for her.  The young Swiss rider jumped to second place in today’s class, and now is tied with Michaels-Beerbaum for the lead.  Guerdat rode Tresor into fourth in the speed leg yesterday, and his second place today was enough to tie for first in the points.  (See sidebar below for explanation of World Cup scoring.)

Michaels-Beerbaum sped to the win today in typical dramatic Shutterfly fashion, flying around the end of the ring to an oxer.  “Where I really made my time up was on the turn back to number 2.  There, I had a very forward stride, and an extremely long distance.  But Shutterfly showed his class and his trust in me, leaving at that distance and clearing that fence, and then managing to jump the last vertical clear too,” Michaels-Beerbaum said.

McLain Ward and Sapphire, the winners of the first speed leg yesterday, didn’t have as good a day—pulling a rail in the first round today—but he’s still very much in the hunt.  He’s now tied for fifth with Marco Kutscher, who placed third in today’s leg.  With the points-converted-to-faults system, they each have just 3 faults, so the lead isn’t too far out of reach.  “The mare was jumping well.  I got a little close to the oxer and trusted the front rail too much.  She’s a scopey horse.  I made a little mistake and paid for it.  The mare was jumping great.  It’s still the same game plan,” Ward said philosophically.

Only two Americans jumped around the first round clean today to qualify for the eight-horse jump-off—Schuyler Riley and Margie Engle.  But Riley and Ilian—performing with a verve and enthusiasm that belie his age of 17—pulled two rails in the jump-off.  Their eighth place in the second leg puts them into a three-way tie for ninth going into the final leg.  “I thought I had it and then I had the double down,” said Riley.  “I was torn between being conservative or going fast and having a fast four.  Then I got too deep to the Rolex fence.  I was trying to be conservative and clear and instead we were conservative and had two poles down.  But he was a good boy and we’re still in it.”

Engle and Hidden Creek’s Quervo Gold also picked up 8 faults in the jump-off—they placed seventh in the class to lie 12th in the standings.   “Speed is not his forte.  He felt super in the first round.  I was trying to just go medium, but he got out of his comfort zone,” Engle said.

Beat Mandli and Ideo du Thot—third in last year’s FEI World Cup Final (Malaysia), look poised to make another bid at the top spot with second place behind Michaels-Beerbaum today, which puts him into third in the standings.  In the speed leg, he was the only rider other than Ward to complete two tough inside turns, but pulled a rail.  “I was very happy with my horse yesterday, but my horse wasn’t very happy with me.  I didn’t ride so well, and I had a rail down.  Today, everything worked out well, and he was trying very hard for me,” he said.

Marco Kutscher’s third place today puts him into that fifth-place tie with Ward.  He and Cash had had a slower clear round in the speed leg to finish 11th, and in the jump-off today, he had to strategize a bit.  “There wasn’t a clear round before me, so I didn’t risk too much in the jump-off.  But I’m happy with third place,” Kutscher said.  “Cash was out for a few weeks, so last week I still didn’t know if I should bring him to Las Vegas, but in the end it seems like it was right.  He likes Las Vegas—he was eighth in the 2005 World Cup Final here.  I had a very good feeling yesterday.”

Michaels-Beerbaum wasn’t as happy with her round yesterday, which had put her into eighth.  She had a slower clear round in the speed leg.  “Honestly, I walked the course and it was not an ideal course for Shutterfly.  The options were turns where after a fence the horse had to stop short and make the turn.  Shutterfly doesn’t do that well—he jumps very forward and far at every fence. Although I had planned to do some of the inside turns like McLain did, it didn’t work for me.  I missed those options because Shutterfly jumped too far out.  He jumped wonderfully, and I had in general a great round, but I was only in eighth place, which was a disappointment for me,” she said.

Leopold van Asten of the Netherlands lurks in fourth place in the standings, after placing seventh in the speed leg and then having the fastest four-fault round for fifth in today’s class.  And Michaels-Beerbaum’s husband, Markus Beerbaum, lies in seventh.  He was second behind Ward in the speed leg, but Leena pulled a rail in the middle of the triple combination today to put them in 13-way tie for ninth with all the other four-faulters. 

Molly Ashe-Cawley and Kroon Gravin were also in that list of four-faulters.  Kroon was jumping phenomenally, but just caught the plank Rolex vertical behind.  They now lie in 13th, right behind Riley and Engle. 

2005 World Cup champion Marcus Ehning was third yesterday in the speed leg, but had the cheapest rail of the day.  Gitania barely brushed the back rail of 11A, a triple bar, and the rail thudded to the ground.  Their place in the large tie for ninth puts them eighth in the standings.  Germans Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst and Christian Ahlmann are tied with Riley for ninth.

Lauren Hough and Casadora were in 10th yesterday, but Casadora caught the back rail of 11B, the oxer out of a one-stride triple-bar-to-oxer combination, and then dropped the plank vertical that followed for 8 faults today.  They’re now in a three-way tie for 15th.  “I didn’t meet the triple bar as well as I should have.  She really had to stretch and had the back rail down at the next.  The Rolex fence was a bit unlucky.  She’s trying and she feels confident.  I didn’t have high expectations [because of the fall a month ago].  Hopefully we still make it in on Sunday,” she said.

Christine McCrea is tied for 22nd, after two rails today.  Jill Humphrey and Kaskaya pulled four rails today, and now lies tied for 27th with Richard Spooner and Cristallo, who had a nice four-fault round today.  Kate Levy rode a really great round on Vent du Nord today, and had a heart-breaking rail at the very last vertical.  She’s in a tie for 24th place with Mandy Porter, who had 12 today. 

Rich Fellers had the biggest disappointment of the day.  He and Gyro were jumping well, but Fellers got lost in one end of the ring and skipped a few fences, going off course and eliminating them.

A QUICK GUIDE TO WORLD CUP SHOW JUMPING SCORING
    In the World Cup format, the riders are awarded points in the first two legs depending on their placings.  The winner of each leg receives one more point than the number of starters, and each placing down the list receives one less.  After the first two legs, the total points for each rider are totaled, and then converted to faults.  The rider with the greatest point total—here Michaels-Beerbaum and Guerdat—go into the third leg with 0 faults, and the rest down the line are assigned faults based on their standing. 

    So, Michaels-Beerbaum was eighth on Day 1, which earned her 34 points, and first on Day 2, which garnered her 42 points.  With a 76-point total, she has 0 faults.  Guerdat’s 38 and 38 points for fourth place on each day also gave him 76 points, so they’re tied with 0 faults.

    McLain Ward earned 42 points for his win on Day 1, and 27 for tying for ninth on Day 2 (all the tied four-faulters received 27 points).  He’s tied for fifth with a 69-point total, which converts to 3 faults.  Beat Mandli has 1 fault to his name, and Leopold van Asten has 2.
  
 On Sunday, faults from the two rounds they jump will be added to their fault total to determine the winner.