McLain Ward and Sapphire just can’t quite beat the great German horse and Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum.

Who would have thought that the Rolex FEI World Cup Final title—decided by a grueling five rounds of jumping over three days—would come down to a margin of 2 seconds?

But that’s just what happened.

Spectators at the Thomas & Mack Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., were treated to a phenomenal display of jumping by two of the greatest horses competing—Shutterfly and Sapphire. They traded clean round after clean round, but in the end, Shutterfly’s speed won the week and gave Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum her third FEI World Cup title. Ward and Sapphire claimed second by the slimmest of margins.

“It was very close—this was the hardest win I’ve ever had. McLain left me absolutely no room for error,” Michaels-Beerbaum said. “This was a big win for me for a couple of reasons, not just because McLain made it so difficult. It was my most perfect win—winning all three days is something special. And I’m riding a once-in-a-lifetime horse, the greatest horse ever. And on a more personal and very emotional note, I lost my father [Richard Michaels, a film and TV director] four weeks ago, and this was a big win for me and for him as well.”

Ward made winning the World Cup with Sapphire his primary goal and began planning his preparation the minute after he won the team gold medal with her at the 2008 Olympic Games in Hong Kong. He and the powerful chestnut mare didn’t put a foot wrong all week in Las Vegas.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t have done anything differently,” Ward said. “I’m very proud of what my horse and I did this week. If I were to come and do it again, I would do it exactly the same way. I take my hat off to Meredith and Shutterfly. They’re the greatest pair in show jumping right now. She was perfect and a touch faster, and it cost me the Final. But I’m proud of my team, of my horse. I gave everything I had, and my horse gave everything she had, and we just came up 2 seconds short. It’s a fine line in sports, and that’s what it’s all about.”

In fact, each of the top three horses jumped flawlessly all week. Albert Zoer and Oki Doki took third with a spectacular performance. Interestingly, the three horses have definite differences in their styles.

Shutterfly—a Hanoverian gelding (Silvio—Famm, Forrest xx)—is a leggy, Thoroughbred type who makes big jumps look effortless. He has seemingly unlimited scope and an amazing elasticity. He’s so rideable that Michaels-Beerbaum can easily compact his rangy stride and add strides in lines between fences, which makes it easy for her to negotiate turns and angles to fences that look impossible.

Sapphire (Darco—Idjaz, Hedjaz) is a big Belgian Warmblood mare who specializes in jumping big courses with her sheer power. She’s not the fleetest of foot, but over the years Ward has learned how to squeeze every ounce of speed out of her. But Sapphire’s speed usually comes from leaving strides out—her big stride makes nimble inside turns more difficult for her.

And Oki Doki (Jodokus—Kentucky, Topas) is a dynamic little Dutch Warmblood gelding who astounds the crowd with his athletic and vigorous jumping efforts. He gallops with a lot of up-and-down action, then flings himself in the air. Zoer makes the most of his unusual style, though he admitted that Oki Doki’s gallop isn’t the fastest.

“Oki Doki is always a fighter; he goes to the end. He does everything for me, so I really love him. I just had to keep him calm here because he’s always a little bit nervous when there’s lots of noise. But I think it worked very well here; he jumped great every day,” Zoer said.

A Race From The Start

Shutterfly’s speed put him ahead from the first day. The first of those 2 crucial seconds came in Leg 1, a speed round. Michaels-Beerbaum pulled off a daring inside turn to an oxer that only one other rider chose, and Shutterfly flew over the jumps with his usual flair.

Their time of 56.48 seconds proved unbeatable.

“I made a plan that I thought suited my horse and was surprised to find that no one else but Steve Guerdat did the inside turn to No. 5,” said Michaels-Beerbaum. “My plan was different than 99 percent of the competition, but I know my horse well and this gives us a great advantage.”

Of the three inside-turn options on the speed course, Ward chose to take only one. He might have covered more square footage than Michaels-Beerbaum, but Sapphire’s gallop ate up the ground. They stopped the timers in 57.73 seconds—just 1.25 seconds slower than Shutterfly—to take third in the first leg.

Christina Liebherr of Switzerland, who was competing in her first World Cup Final, pulled off second place in the speed leg aboard the strong L.B. No Mercy.

“Normally, my horse jumps much better outside in a big ring; he has a big stride,” Liebherr said. “I thought a lot about coming here because I knew it was a small arena, and he hasn’t done well when it gets hectic in a small ring. But I just tried to not bother him in the mouth too much, and he was really listening to me.”

Ward’s fellow U.S. rider, Rich Fellers, gave the crowd quite a show when he rode Flexible into fourth in the speed leg. As first to go, he set the pace with the enthusiastic little gelding. Flexible almost unseated Fellers on one tight turn.

“He was phenomenal,” Fellers said of Flexible, with whom he was second to Shutterfly in the 2008 Rolex FEI World Cup Final (Sweden).

“That was a little dicey [when I almost went off the side of him], but that’s where he covers for me. I’m 50 years old this year. I need a nice, young, athletic horse to make up for my mistakes.”

Zoer put himself in excellent stalking position with Oki Doki, riding to sixth place in the speed leg.

As Fast As They Can Go

Sometimes, riders in the lead of the World Cup Final play it somewhat safe on Day 2, but Michaels-Beerbaum made it clear she was going for broke. In Leg 2, which is run like a grand prix, with clean rounds jumping off, she again showed off Shutterfly’s superior speed.

Ward laid down a jump-off round that set the standard. They shaved the turns as close as Ward dared, and Sapphire turned herself inside out to jump clean.

But Shutterfly is just faster.

He and Michaels-Beerbaum made short work of shaving exactly 1 second off Ward’s time to take the win in Leg 2—the second of those 2 seconds that turned out to matter so much.

“He’s a race horse type, and when he’s on like he was tonight, he doesn’t spend any time in his turns,” Michaels-Beerbaum said.

“I went as fast as I possibly could go,” Ward said. “There wasn’t one place I could have gone faster. And she beat me. It’s a commendable performance.”

With her wins in the first two legs, Michaels-Beerbaum held the lead going into Leg 3—two rounds over big courses—with 0 faults. Ward was just behind her with 2 faults to his name, assigned because of his third- and second-placed finishes in Legs 1 and 2.

Zoer and Oki Doki weren’t out of the running, however. They claimed third in Leg 2 with a jump-off round less than 1 second slower than Ward’s. “Oki Doki has a slow gallop, so I know I have to ride really fast,” Zoer said. That result gave them a total of 4 faults headed into Leg 3, in third place.

Flexible and Fellers kept themselves in the hunt with a quick jump-off but pulled a rail.

“I think he just jumped a little low on that one,” Fellers said. “I was waiting for him to back off it, and he rubbed it.” Their eighth place in Leg 2 put them into fourth for the final day, with 6 faults.

L.B. No Mercy’s rideability diminished in the jump-off of Leg 2, and Liebherr couldn’t get him around one turn. Their 13th place in that leg put them into fifth before the last day, with 7 faults to their name.

A Flawless Finish

There wasn’t any room for error for any of the top five. Zoer and Ward put all the pressure on Michaels-Beerbaum by jumping spectacular clear rounds over the first- and second-round courses. But Shutterfly answered the call, matching them jump for jump.

After watching earlier horses in the order have difficulty over course designer Anthony D’Ambrosio’s big, scopey courses, the spectators were treated to a display of truly phenomenal jumping from Oki Doki, Sapphire and Shutterfly.

When Michaels-Beerbaum cantered Shutterfly into the ring for the second round, you could have heard a pin drop in the arena. Ward and Zoer had been flawless, keeping their scores of 2 and 4, respectively. One rail, and Ward would win it.

Shutterfly barely ticked the first vertical for a rub that brought the crowd’s hearts to their throats, then lofted over all the rest of the jumps with feet to spare.

Landing after the last jump clean, Michaels-Beerbaum knew the World Cup was hers. She pumped her fist for the crowd, then broke down in tears as she patted Shutterfly.

“He’s definitely the Maserati of the horse world. It’s a great honor to ride a horse like that,” she said. “He’s a horse that comes along once in a lifetime. To have brought him up from a young horse to this makes me very proud. Now we’ve gotten to the point where we’re like an old married couple—he knows me so well and I know him so well.

“He doesn’t take many jumps in the warm-up ring. He’s a bit fragile there, but I still trust him in the ring. That only comes with years of experience together. That’s what at the end makes a big difference,” she noted. “I think it’s a great example of why the relationship between the horse and rider is so important at this level, to win at these big events. The only way I stayed ahead of McLain and Albert is knowing my horse so well. I was able to cut little corners here and there; it was basically the difference of 2 seconds, and that’s just such fine-tuning.”

Ups And Downs

Michaels-Beerbaum, Ward and Zoer weren’t the only ones to jump double clear on the last day over the massive courses. Liebherr gave L.B. No Mercy masterful rides to keep the powerful gelding on track and jump two clean rounds. They moved back up to fourth place overall.

Ludger Beerbaum and Coupe De Coeur had come into the last day in a three-way tie for eighth place. Coupe De Coeur was a crowd favorite, with striking gray dapples and a tidy jump like a working hunter. They continued to work their way up the standings with two clean rounds in Leg 3, putting them sixth at the end.

Rodrigo Pessoa and Rufus finished up in fifth with a clear and a four-fault round on the last day.

Fellers and Flexible couldn’t duplicate their stellar results from the first two days. Flexible jumped uncharacteristically poorly and had the first two fences of the first round down.

“I think we didn’t jump a big enough wide spread fence in the warm-up,” Fellers said. “I was thinking about how much jumping there is today with two big rounds, and I tried to be conservative. We finished on a tall vertical, and he got a bit impressed with the two big spread fences early. So I made a mistake in my preparation. It’s as simple as that.”

Round 2 didn’t improve for them—after an early rail, Flexible got into trouble at the triple combination. He caught the back rail of 7B between his front legs, which made it impossible for him to clear 7C, which he also had down. Fellers circled before No. 8, then they had another rail. The 22 faults dropped them down to 18th in the end.

Danny Boy Gets An Education

Beezie Madden wasn’t sure what to expect of Danny Boy when she arrived in Las Vegas for the Rolex FEI World Cup Final. The 9-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding (Clinton—Solitaire van het Costerveld, Alexis Z) has had consistent placings in bigger classes this winter, but a major win at the top level has so far eluded the leggy bay.

Madden chose to rest her first-string mounts—the experienced Authentic and Judgement—this winter and push Danny Boy. As her husband, John Madden, said in the Chronicle’s Rolex FEI World Cup Preview Issue (April 3), “I think she’s looking at the World Cup Final as a time when she’ll have to ask questions of the newer string. Danny Boy will be asked some hard questions, and your prediction is as good as mine as to how he’ll answer.”

Danny Boy answered with a resounding “bring it on” and finished as the second-highest-placed U.S. horse, in 12th. Madden rode him sympathetically, and the spectators could see him learning over the three days of jumping. Madden rode conservatively in the speed leg, placing 24th with a slower round and one rail.

“I wanted to be as smooth as I could. It started out a little rough because he jumped so high at Fence 1,” Beezie said. “The rail he had down, I was just turning him a bit off the ground and in the air to get direct to the next fence, and distracted him a bit.”

Danny Boy then placed fourth in the second leg, jumping clean in the first round to qualify for the jump-off. He and Madden were beaten in the jump-off only by the top horses of the Final, Shutterfly, Sapphire and Oki Doki.

“He felt really solid—it was amazing,” said Beezie. “I’m thrilled with him. I didn’t expect this much.”

Beezie’s smile got even wider when Danny Boy was one of just 10 horses to jump clean over the first round of the final day. Her enthusiasm for the young horse’s response to the challenges of the day was obvious, and they moved up to seventh in the standings.

But they had three rails down in the second round, dropping them to 12th at the end of the week. Beezie wasn’t disappointed, though.

“The last round was a definite step up in difficulty from the other rounds, and I think I rode him a little bit to protect him, to make sure he didn’t get in trouble. It was a little my fault. I was so pleased with how he went. I think I have a real horse for the future. I thought his first round today was the best round of the week, so that’s a good sign that he just got better from it. He could have given up, and he didn’t.”