Ben Maher has won the €372,000 FEI World Cup Grand Prix at the Winter Equestrian Festival inWellington, Florida.
British-bred
It was a three-way jump-off with Ben riding against Germany’s Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum and the USA’s Laura Kraut, who was competing in front of a home crowd.
Meredith and Fibonacci 17 were first in, jumping clear in 46.31 seconds, while Laura and her longstanding partner Cedric had one fence down. Last to go were Ben and Diva II, who barely had time to catch their breath after jumping second to last in round one.
The British-bred 10-year-old mare still managed to jump clear and shaved less than half a second off Meridith’s time to win the class on 46.03sec.
Unconventional
“Diva didn’t have much time to recover, which I really felt in the warm-up especially before the jump-off,” said Ben. “It probably wasn’t my best ever round.
“Diva is hairy in the way she goes. She is not so conventional, but I didn’t have a lot to lose. A couple weeks ago I played it safe, butI knew I would be top three. I figured that I would have a go and with a little bit of luck here and there, it paid off.”