Madden and Simon New World Champs

By Staff Report April 29, 2013

A 25-year-drought, and then two years running! Beezie Madden and Simon are show jumping’s new world champions, winning the 2013 Rolex/FEI World Cup Final in Gothenburg, Sweden, April 28. The pair from Cazenovia, NY, rose to the top on the strength of a grueling week of contests at the Scandinavum Arena that drew the top international riders.

Madden and Simon fill the formidable shoes of  U.S. rider Rich Fellers and Flexible, who won last year at the Indoor Brabant, ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. Prior to that, the last pair to take the big silver cup home to the USA was Katharine Burdsall and The Natural in 1987, Paris.

Those were the days, when Conrad Homfeld had multiple wins (1980 and 1985), Leslie Burr closed the deal in 1986 and the nation was collecting Olympic gold by the armload. Then, when it came to World Cup, the decades that followed saw the U.S. hunting and pecking for occasional placings at 5^th or 8^th.

It is the first World Cup win for Madden, 49, who has been riding since age of three and has three  Olympic medals with Authentic (Team Gold in 2004 and 2008, when she also won Individual Bronze).  In 2011 Madden tied for fourth with Mario Kutcher (GER) at the Rolex/FEI World Cup in Leipzig (riding Danny Boy and Coral Reef Via Volo).

Madden spoke for many a rider when she shared “it’s been a dream of mine to win the World Cup. I can’t believe I’ve done it. The closest I’d been was fourth so it was a nice jump to make.”

Nice jumping indeed! The Rolex/FEI World Cup Final is unique in format, taking place over three days. This year the win required six trips through the starting gate for Madden and Simon, although it’s possible to win in five (if round five does not end in a draw). Although there is a day of rest between the second and third days, the event is nonetheless a marathon for both rider and horse. (Riders are permitted up to two horses, though Madden chose exclusively to ride Simon, a 14-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding she’s been on for the past 18 months, owned by Abigail Wexner.

Madden started day three in second place, with a single fault, after Portugal’s Luciana Diniz, riding Lennox (0). Guerdat was sitting sixth (5 faults)  with Nino des Buissonnets. The Europeans had their Olympic mounts (Guerdat and Nino won Individual Gold). Madden rode Coral Reef Via Volo at the 2012 Olympics. The USA’s McLain Ward on Super Trooper and Reed Kessler and 18-year-old Cylana were also in the Top 10 as the final day of competition began.

Not one of the 23 starters managed to complete course designer Uliano Vezzani’s first-round track without penalty. Seventeen competitors advanced to round two, where only three left all the rails up and one of those―Sweden’s Rolf-Goran Bengtsson―collected a time fault. Madden went into a third-round head-to-head with Olympic champion Steve Guerdat, but the 30-year-old Swiss rider had to settle for runner-up the second year in a row, and it was the strains of the Star Spangled Banner that rang out in an emotional awards ceremony that saw the mild-mannered daughter of Milwaukee, WI, claim the prize.

Guerdat was one of two to go clear in Sunday’s round 2, which with his five points carried in from the prior rounds, totaled nine. Madden, who one rail down in each of round 1 and round 2, also lay on nine. This would be settled in a jump-off.

Guerdat was first in for the third go. With Madden behind him, he felt the pressure to deliver a scorching time and set-off lickety-split―a strategy that worked for the first part of the race, only to fall apart at the end, with rails down at the final two fences.  “I know she’s a very fast rider, so I had to try,” Guerdat said afterwards. Once Madden saw that Guerdat had two rails, she plaid it like a cool cucumber, slow and steady―careful enough to leave all the rails in place without exceeding the time allowed.

Madden and Simon started strong, winning the Thursday’s speed class – the first trip through the in-gate in the long road to the championship and determiner of the order of go. “It’s been a fantastic week. The first leg was one of those rounds where everything came up.” Looking back on Friday’s performance, she said she was dejected after the second rail. Even on Sunday, repeat mistakes were nattering at her. “I would have liked to have gone clear in the second round, but you have to shake that off and concentrate on the jump-off.”

Guerdat gave Vezzani’s course a big thumbs-up. “The course was tough, but there were a lot of four-faults. You didn’t see horses struggling, and if we riders did our job as well as (the course designer) then there would have been more clear rounds!”

A last-fence error in the second round cost France’s Kevin Staut dearly Sunday. Without that, his running tally of six would have been good enough for the win. But he was stoic in the aftermath, and optimistic about his future with the grey mare, Silvana HDC. “I am very happy about third place, although I was a bit disappointed I had the last down. It has been fantastic sport here, my fourth Rolex World Cup Final, and I never jumped as big as we jumped today. My mare is 14 years old and I never knew she could jump as big as that.”

Madden’s mount, Simon, was in a Rolex FEI World Cup Final in 2011, coming in third at Leipzig with his rider Jeroen Dubbeldam of the Netherlands. “He’s a very sensible horse. There has always been a question about rideability and we’ve played around with bits and found one he likes now. He can get strong, but he’s not so difficult and he’s careful. He wants to do his job and he makes it easy for me as long as I can get him in range. He’s great because he’s a fighter!” she said.

In addition to Madden, Ward and Kessler, either other U.S. riders competed at Gothenburg, though only three qualified to ride on day three: Karl Cook, Katie Dinan, Charlie Jayne.

Three-time Olympian, Ward (Brewster, NY) produced a fifth place finish overall with Grant Road Partner LLC’s Super Trooper De Ness on a score of 13 faults. In Sunday’s first round the scopey 11-year-old Belgain Warmblood stallion jumped a near flawless round just adding four faults at the sixth oxer. The pair returned in round two with a podium finish on their mind but were one of many to get caught out in the triple combination adding four faults at 4C.

Rounding out the U.S. competitors in the Top 10 was 18-year-old Reed Kessler and her 2012 Olympic Games partner, the 11-year-old Belgain mare Cylana. Kessler (Lexington, KY) was making her Rolex/FEI World Cup debut and ended on an admirable eight fault total in Sunday’s first round after dislodging rails at fences 5B and 9B. In round two, she again incurred eight faults to end up finishing in 10th place on 25 faults.

Directly behind Kessler, in 11th place, was Karl Cook (Woodside, CA) riding Signe Ostby’s 11-year-old Zangerscheide stallion Jonkheer Z to four fault totals in both rounds. They completed their first Final appearance with a World Cup total of 28 faults.

Completing the U.S. effort were Dinan and Jayne. Riding Grant Road Partners LLC’s 12-year-old Selle Francais gelding Nougat Du Vallet, Dinan (Wellington, FL) jumped eight and 12 fault rounds, respectively, to finish on a score of 38 in 16th place. Like Kessler and Cook, the 19-year-old was also riding in her first Final. Jayne (Elgin, IL) and Alex Jayne and Maura Thatcher’s 10-year-old Zangerscheide stallion Chill R Z produced an eight fault trip in round one. But 20 faults in the second round left the 2012 Olympic reserve combination in 17th place on 44 faults.

Kent Farrington (Wellington, FL) also qualified to represent the United States in Sunday’s final but withdrew, chosing to save R.C.G. Farm’s Uceko for another day.

Chef d’Equipe Robert Ridland was pleased with the results of all the U.S. combinations this week. “We’re very excited; we made this a huge goal. This was a priority; not just winning but really doing better with all our riders in the running and we saw that today,” said Ridland. “It certainly bodes well for our future that we had five riders in the Top 16, in a year when we sent one of our youngest teams ever to the Final!”

Madden is only the fifth woman ever to secure the coveted trophy.  In addition to the aforementioned Leslie Burr and Katharine Burdsall, fellow-American Melanie Smith (1982) while the Los Angeles-born and bred Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum won (on the astounding Shutterfly) in 2005, 2008, 2009, albeit riding under the flag of her adopted home in Germany.

For complete results and course charts from the 2013 Rolex/FEI World Cup Final visit http://results.scgvisual.com/2013/goteborg/

Follow the 2013 U.S. Jumping Team here.

 

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