February 1, 2018 
It’s been said: “If you don’t win the first class, you can’t win them all.”
If you’re McLain Ward, it’s not just said. It’s also been done. (See: 2017 Longines FEI World Cup Finals.)
Some 52 horses and riders contested the $35,000 CP Welcome Stake at the CP Palm Beach Masters, presented by Sovaro®, in Wellington, FL on Thursday afternoon. While many opted to use the class as a training round, Ward set out to win.
“Our goal was to try to come in and pick off this first class,” said the two-time Olympic team gold medalist.
“I’m lucky enough to have a nice string of horses, so that I can have two at this event. Today’s money is as good as tomorrow’s, so we’re going to work very hard tomorrow for it and when everybody’s training, as they were today, it’s a good day to take advantage.”
Ward’s partner in the ring: Hija van Strokapelleken—a horse whose name may or may not be pronounced “I, ah, want stroke a pelican.” [It works best in an Italian accent.]
Owned by Jennifer Gates’s Evergates Stables, the 11-year-old Belgian Warmblood mare is a seasoned Grand Prix horse that was previously campaigned by Egypt’s Nayel Nassar. She’s currently showing under Ward to be sold.
“I think the mare can handle any Grand Prix in the world,” said the world number three, who has yet to incur a rail in an FEI class with the horse.
“She’s already done some very big events. Nayel Nassar showed her last year in the Global Champions Tour team competitions, which are quite large. I did her in the Grand Prix [in Wellington] two weeks ago, which was already big enough—even though it’s only a two star, Wellington is notorious for courses that don’t really follow the star level. She handled that beautifully.”
Ward’s main challenge with the mare: getting her fit to compete.
“I’ve had her in my stable since October and she had come off a long season and had a bit of a rest. So, we were just working on getting her fit this winter really,” said Ward.
“She’s a big horse, so for horse like that being fit and light certainly helps and gives them a little more energy. She has all the scope, she’s very rideable, she’s nicely careful and, in a class like this, you can use the stride to your advantage. She was walking the leave outs today, so you don’t have to do anything too extreme. But her fitness is something we really thought about over the last few months and I think really has is coming into form now.”
Ward says right client will come along soon enough.
“I probably won’t have her too long because she’s been doing well,” he admitted.
But if someone wants to buy the horse so he can keep riding it, that’s fine with him, too:
“You know, that’s always a possibility. I think someone is going to snap her up pretty soon. Like I said, she’s an awesome horse. We’ll see what happens.”
Mexico’s Fernando Martinez Sommer and Cor Bakker took second. USA’s Hunter Holloway and Eastern Jam, third.
Tune in on Friday to watch Ward and 54 more international riders contest the $35,000 Longines FEI World Cup™ Qualifier, presented by Sovaro®, on Horse Network Live and palmbeachmasters.com/watch-live.
