LAS VEGAS (AP) - Steffen Peters and Ravel earned a score of 77.9 percent from the five-judge panel to win the $100,000 Grand Prix dressage competition at the opening session of the Rolex World Cup Final.
Meredith Michaels- Beerbaum and Shutterfly cleared all 15 jumps in 56.48 seconds to win the evenings jumping competition.
By winning the opening jumping event, Michaels-Beerbaum, a former Los Angeles resident who now rides for Germany, took a major step toward defending the World Cup jumping crown she won here in 2005 and in Sweden last year. The top-ranked jumping rider in the world and her 15-year-old German-bred gelding beat Christina Liebherr of Switzerland, astride L.B. No Mercy, by .99 seconds to claim the winners check of $53,962.
McLain Ward of Brewster, N.Y., who rode on gold-medal winning United States Equestrian teams at the last two Olympics, teamed with Sapphire to take third place in 57.73 seconds.
The German-born and San Diego-based Peters and his Dutch-bred gelding upset the reigning Olympic champion and five-time World Cup winner Anky van Grunsven of the Netherlands and her substitute horse, IPS Painted Black, by 3.8 points.
The victory was clinched when van Grunsven had to force IPS Painted Black, a newcomer to the world equestrian stage, to change leads at the canter in the middle of their ride. All five judges immediately flashed up scores of 4.0 points out of a possible 10 for that movement to open the door for Peters and Ravel.
Riding next in the order, the combination that finished fourth in the 2008 Olympics received three 8s and a 7 for the same maneuver.
Germany’s Isabel Werth, the 2007 World Cup dressage winner, finished third with 73.7 percent. She was mounted on the German-bred gelding Satchmo, her winning ride for the qualifiers at Frankfurt and Neumunster, Germany.
Peters gave the credit for their win to Ravel.
“I looked at Anky’s score twice on my way in (to the arena to ride.) I knew she was in the lead. But I never had to push Ravel at all. He gave me all the movements today.”
Akiko Yamazaki, who rides in dressage competitions for Japan, received $23,000 for Ravel’s winning performance. IPS Painted Black settled for $14,000. Satchmo’s third-place finish was worth $10,500. The top 10 finishers in the grand prix will return to the arena Saturday night to perform the same movements in a musical ride choreographed by their riders.
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