McLain Ward takes WEF challenge in week five with Antares F

McLain ard and Antares F.
By sportfot.com

McLain Ward of the USA and Grant Road Partners' Antares F claimed the fifth leg of the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) Challenge Cup Grand Prix. The pair was the fastest of three double clears in the class to win over 64 starters.

Nine combinations umped clear over Irish course-designer Alan Wade's track.

McLain Ward and Antares F's clean jump-off round was completed in a time of 40.85 seconds to earn first place. Venezuela's Pablo Barrios and G&C Quick Star 11 finished in second in  41.94 seconds, and Ireland's Jennifer Crooks rode SF Uryadi, owned by Olivia Cox-Fill and Stella Farm, into third place with a steadier round in 51.34 seconds.

The winning combination is a fairly new partnership within the past six months and McLain noted that he and the 11-year-old Baden-Württemberger gelding, who is by Araconit x Cento, are gradually getting to know each other.

"We are still learning different things and I do not think we have it exactly right yet, but we are close and we keep winning pretty decent classes," he said. "This clss was as hard to win as any Grand Prix anywhere in the world. We had almost 70 of the best and it was difficult."

"I think Alan Wade is a great course builder," he continued. "I love his courses. I think they make sense from a rider's point of view. They are not gimmicky or false, what you see is what you get, but at the same time that was a very challenging course."

Jumping in the large open space in the WEF International Arena, Antares F covered the ground with ease and then left McLain asked him to take out a stride in the last line to take the lead.

"He has an incredibly big stride, but he is also very fast across the ground," said McLain. "He is an aggressive horse, so you don't really have to make him go fast. You just have to soften the reins and he moves across the ground, so it makes him quite quick, especially in big spaces."

McLain has many exceptional horses in his barn and spoke about the difference between his three top mounts: Antares F, Rothchild, and Sapphire.

"They are really all different," he said. "Anatares, stride-wise, is similar to Sapphire, but he has tons more blood. He is an incredible jumper and he is a little bit of a handful, but in a good way.

"Rothchild is what he is. He is quirky and a little bit of a character, but he is in good form and he kind of quietly keeps jumping clear round after clear round.

"One thing about Sapphire is that you always know what you are going to get. The other two aren't quite to the consistency level that she is at yet, but I hope that eventually they will be."

McLain also gained a bonus $6,000 for wearing SSG Digital Riding Gloves while jumping in this class. The prize is usually $3,000, nut it was not won the previous week so McLain got double.