November 23, 2025 
Fourth of July fireworks, changing of the seasons, Apple releasing a new iPhone—some things you can count on happening every year. McLain Ward winning a 1.60m Grand Prix is one of them.
Over the past decade not a single year has gone by in which Mr. Consistency didn’t claim at least one 1.60m GP title—and more often than not several. He has 36 Grand Prix wins at the height since 2015, half at the 5* level.
But he was cutting it close in 2025.
USA’s most decorated Olympic show jumper has won three CSIO5* Nations Cups, finished second in the Rolex Grand Prix at La Baule and won a 4* Grand Prix in North Salem this season (Jumpr stats). But a 5* GP win has been elusive. And with his top horse Imperial HBF sidelined by injury, Paris 2024 mount Ilex now under the saddle of Marlon Modolo Zanotelli, and his Tokyo Games partner Contagious retired in June, Ward was short on his usual horsepower and on weeks in the calendar to do it.
On Saturday evening in Los Angeles, High Star Hero answered the call.
The pair topped a seven-horse jump-off that included world no. 1, 6 and 8 in Kent Farrington, Richie Vogel and Laura Kraut, respectively, plus rising star Nina Mallevaey, on form Aaron Vale and newly crowned Canadian champion Kyle Timm to secure the biggest victory of their partnership. And High Star Hero’s first GP win at any height.
Their winning jump-off time of 33.99 seconds was the only sub 34 round of the evening, earning an ecstatic fist pump from Ward. Vogel finished second with nine-year-old Gangster Montdesir (34.39 seconds). Mallevaey, third with Dynastie de Beaufor (34.7s).
“Sometimes we rally, and this horse has stepped up. He’s been…knocking on the door, and I’m really thrilled for him to get a win for our whole team” he said.
Ward has been partnered with High Star Hero since last summer. The pair found immediate success, winning the 1.60m Grand Prix qualifier at the Hampton Classic, a title they defended in 2025.
“Hero is a very talented horse—very careful, very sensitive,” Ward explained. “I remember back to the days of Rothchild: I said, ‘This is our best horse [right now], and he has a lot of good qualities, and we’re going to have him dig in here, and he’s risen to the challenge.'”
That’s a telling comparison. Rothchild went on to win four 1.60m GP titles for Ward, including his first individual championship medal at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto.
Ward now sits second in the North American League standings on 36 points. Conor Swail (IRL) leads with 41 points with Kraut in third on 33. The World Cup next stops in A Coruña, Spain on December 7 with the NAL resuming in Thermal, USA on January 31, 2026.
