August 18, 2025 
Any day you win a Grand Prix is a good day. But to win TWO Grands Prix on the same day? That’s next level good.
That happened on Sunday, August 17th in Canada’s capital, where Adrienne Sternlicht was not satisfied to win one FEI Grand Prix, but decided to take one title in the morning and grab the other in the afternoon.
It began with the two-star Grand Prix, where Sternlicht bested a field of 29 with 9-year-old Zangersheide mare Corablue Z. It continued with the five-star Grand Prix, where she grabbed the top spot with the only double clear in a field of 26 with 11-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding Origa v/h Zuid-Pajottenland.
You’d be forgiven to think that 32-year-old Sternlicht came out of nowhere—it has been nearly a year since she has entered a five-star Grand Prix—and hey, no one can say she didn’t come back in style!
But, in general, it was a good day to be a radical feminist. The start list for the five-star Grand Prix held no fewer than four of the world’s top ten: newly-minted number 9 Daniel Coyle, number 8 McLain Ward, number 6 Richard Vogel, joining the late summer North American circuit from Europe, and, of course, world number 1 Kent Farrington.
Did any of these guys make the jump off? Nope. On this tough track, described by Canadian veteran Mario Deslauriers as a “very massive” course set “to the limit of a five-star,” we had only three clears and all of them belonged to female athletes.
The first came early. Fresh off a very successful European summer tour, Jessica Mendoza and 10-year-old Zangersheide gelding Summerhouse made it look easy.
But this was the last we would see of pretty, clear rounds for awhile as some of the most reliable competitors were taken out by Brazilian course designer Maria Azevedo’s tough track. Oh, yes, have I mentioned? On this day of Girls Gone Greedy, we had the world’s only female Level 4 show jumping course designer, qualified to design courses for the highest level of competition, including championships such as the Olympics and Pan Am Games.
We began to suspect things wouldn’t go so easy for most of the competitors when world number 24, Conor Swail, usually a reliable clear-round machine, racked up 16 jumping faults and 7 time right after Mendoza’s clear.
Because the the track wasn’t just massive and tough on the grass field at Wesley Clover Parks, it also had a tight time allowed. Nine of the competitors racked up time faults.
But surely world number 9, Daniel Coyle, would easily master the course. Nope. He took out two rails and added two time faults so the jumping faults wouldn’t be lonely.
But world number 8, McLain Ward, was sure to give us a clear. Nope. He started by taking out the first fence and ended with an early retirement after taking out another.
A few riders on and we get our next clear, with 22-year-old Elena Haas, sitting at 338th in the world, aboard her 13-year-old Westphalian Claude. She attributed their success over the challenging course to their successful stint earlier in the summer at Spruce Meadows.
Then in came Sternlicht, laying down the third clear round.
But we still had two top-ten riders to go. Everyone held their breath as world number 1, Kent Farrington entered the ring, fresh off a five-star Grand Prix win in Traverse City. “He’s world number one,” intoned the commentator, “And he knows exactly what he needs to do to stay there.”
Well, he didn’t do it this time, ending the round with a retirement, after taking out the plank, encountering trouble in the triple, and taking out the black-poled skinny after the triple jump.
And then European Champion Richard Vogel, world number 6. Two rails.
I almost felt as if I were back in Dublin with that tougher-than-tough Alan Wade course, that took the highest-ranked female rider in the world to give the only clear round that won it. But here we had three lovely ladies to battle it out for the win on a course none of the boys could handle.
Jessica Mendoza went first. She laid down the fastest time, but took out a pole while doing it. Elena Haas rode slightly more steadily, but also knocked a rail. That left Sternlicht, who only needed to give a clear to win the whole thing. Even so, she hedged her bets a bit, not taking the track too slowly, but with speed enough to be able to accelerate for a fast four-faults were she to hit a rail.
But she didn’t. She gave a clear round two seconds slower than Mendoza and tied up her second Grand Prix win of the day!
