Monday, April 25, 2005 | 11:04 a.m.
The 2005 World Cup Finals in show jumping and dressage ended Sunday with two veteran winners emerging as champions. Netherlands veteran Anky van Grunsven, riding Keltec Salinero, won the dressage competition and German rider Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, riding Shutterfly, walked away with the title of World Cup Finals jumping champion.
Michaels-Beerbaum finished with 78 world cup points. Michael Whitaker of Great Britain came in a distant second with 67. The large margin of victory was due to Michaels-Beerbaum committing only four penalties to Whitaker's seven total penalties.
"I knew that Shutterfly was in the best form ever," Michaels-Beerbaum said. "There was no doubt it was going to be my day."
Shutterfly performed with the quickness and precision that has allowed the mare become one of the world's elite show jumpng horses. Shutterfly is a dark brown Hanoverian horse. Eleven of the 150 best show jumpers worldwide are Hanoverian sport horses.
Michaels-Beerbaum, who is the first woman ever to be ranked No. 1 in the world in show jumping, is the third consecutive rider at the World Cup Final to be ranked in sixth place after the first day of competition and battle back to become champion.
"This is by biggest individual win," Michaels-Beerbaum said. "It was a wonderful pleasure to win in Las Vegas. A lot of my family lives in California and for them to be able to give me support helped."
The journey and preparation of a champion could and probably should have been halted in June of last year for Michaels-Beerbaum. When the FEI alerted the German Equestrian Federation that at the 2004 World Cup Finals Show Jumping Championships, her horse Shutterfly tested positive for a metabolite.
Both the rider and horse were exonerated at an FEI judicial committee hearing in April.
In the Dressage Champion, two riders from the Netherlands finished 1 and 2. Van Grunsven edged Edward Gal, 86.725 to 85.225, to capturing his seventh World Cup Final Dressage title.
"I was proud of my horse," van Grunsven said. "It felt great two have two riders from the Netherlands finish strong in the end."
Van Grunsven's score was possibly a freestyle record, beating her previous mark of 86.05 percent at the 2000 championships
United States rider and 2003 World Cup in Dressage champion Debbie McDonald finished third with 83.450. McDonald, who at 50 might have been participating in her final major competition, wasn't too somber about the third place finish.
"My goal was to bring fun, not only for myself but for the audience. I think I achieved my goa," she said.
McDonald fell into her role as a dressage rider without searching for it when she had a serious injury which forced her to give up her hunter-jumper riding profession and enter dressage riding.
McDonald has won a gold medal at the Pan-American Games, a silver at the Olympics and has been named Equestian of the Year. She will be remembered as one of the greatest dressage riders of all time.
"Las Vegas and the Thomas & Mack Center were excellent hosts and I hope that we made an impact in trying to bring the popularity of the sport to American soil," McDonald said.
The FEI has 30 days to accept an offer that would bring the World Cup Finals back to Las Vegas in 2007.
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