Who knew that after two intensely stressful days, two rounds over fences, a flat phase, and a test, the ASPCA Maclay Finals trophy would come down to one counter-canter. But it did, and in the end, Maggie McAlary earned her second major equitation title today, Nov. 5, at the Syracuse Invitational Sporthorse Tournament (N.Y.). She added the Maclay win to her Pessoa/USEF Medal Finals (Pa.) win three weeks before.
Julie Welles ended up a very close second in the class. In the final test, where the riders had to counter-canter a very tight turn to a vertical out of the corner, Welles worked hard to keep her horse, Sander in the counter-canter, and was very careful in the turn. But she added a stride to the vertical, and the turn lacked the effortless flow that had trademarked the rest of her rides this weekend. McAlary made a very smooth turn at the counter-canter, although her hand-gallop to the first fence had been conservative compared to Welles’.
“The top four could have gone any way,” said Ralph Caristo, who judged the class with Scott Williamson. “It was hard to separate them. But in the test, the deciding factor might have been the counter-canter to the vertical. Maggie was a little smoother there than Julie, and that’s how we made out decision. Riding ability-wise, there is absolutely no separation between the two of them. It just worked out that the final test was the deciding factor.”
The final test was the downfall of Nick Haness, who had started today in first place. His first over fences round today lacked some of the flow and confidence of his round yesterday, and the judges dropped him back to third before the final testing. After the over fences round today, Caristo and Williamson chose four riders to ride the test, which involved hand-galloping a Swedish oxer, halting, then negotiating the tight counter-canter turn to a vertical. From there, they rolled back to an oxer, cantered to a vertical, and then proceeded back to the line-up at the sitting trot. Welles was called back on top, with McAlary behind her, then Haness and Jennifer Waxman.
Waxman nailed the test with flair, putting the pressure on the rest of the group. She was competing in just her first Maclay finals. Haness had a brilliant hand-gallop to the first fence, but his horse fidgeted in the halt, and then Haness was unable to get the counter-canter established until just a few strides before the fence. The mistake was enough to drop him to fourth, and put Waxman third.
McAlary put the pressure on Welles with a fluid test ride aboard Chagall. She didn’t have much of a hand-gallop to the first fence, but her counter-canter turn and the rest of the ride was flawless. Welles struck up a rolling canter to the first fence and found it perfectly, and then halted a good 10 feet before anyone else had. Her horse, Sander, stood immobile, and Welles picked up the counter canter. But she was obviously careful trying to hold the lead through the turn, and swung wide and added a stride.
Welles was obviously disappointed, but took the loss in stride. “I was so happy with my horse—he couldn’t have gone any better. The course yesterday really suited him—he has a long stride. And today, he couldn’t have gone any better,” she said. Sander, her horse for both the Medal and Maclay finals, is only 7, and has only been doing the equitation division since July. Welles noted that this was the first time she’d ridden him in a final testing situation.
McAlary’s weekend looked to be in jeopardy on Tuesday, when Mid-Accord, her mount for the Medal finals win, incurred a stone bruise. The entire Heritage Farm community sprung into action, according to trainer Andre Dignelli. “This was a really emotional and crazy week. I made everyone crazy, running around, trying to figure it out. We body clipped every horse in the barn who could jump a course. But after a lot of tears and pleading, we got Chagall,” he said. Chagall belongs to Dignelli’s student, Natalie Johnson, who completed her last junior year last year on him. Chagall had spent all of this year leased out and doing the children’s hunters, so he hadn’t even shown over 3’6” for months.
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“But I think Chagall is the most beautiful equitation horse I’ve ever brought to the ring, and Maggie is probably one of the most stylish riders I’ve ever seen, so the combination was magic,” Dignelli said.
McAlary’s round today over the Round 2 course was confident, forward and precise. She negotiated all three of the inside turn options the judges offered, and did them with flair. Her round moved her up from third to second before the test. Welles’ trip this morning was very fluid and elegant, and she also worked out all the inside turns to take over the lead. Haness’ drop to third before the testing came when he just lacked the flow of his round yesterday, and lost momentum on the inside turn to a long two-stride oxer-oxer combination.
Waxman made a big move up to the fourth spot before the test, having been called back this morning in seventh. But her round was very precise and confident, making all the inside turns except to the last oxer, where she chose to go wide and gallop the approach.
Tina Dilandri, who had started today in fourth place, didn’t have such a good go in the over fences round. She had a very quiet distance to the vertical at Fence 3 off a tight inside turn, and the rail came down. Then, she found a very tight distance to an oxer. The judges dropped her down to 10th. Nikko Ritter, coming back in fifth place, didn’t have the smoothest turn back to the two-stride combination, and the judges put him in ninth in the end. Mallory Olson had a really nice round coming back in sixth, and ended up in eighth.
Sloane Coles made another huge leap up the standings. Called back 22nd after Round 1 yesterday, she moved up to 12th before today’s round. She rode with a determined flair in the round today, and the judges rewarded her with fifth place. Before Coles went, as the 13th to go, everyone had made an inside turn to the last fence, a Swedish oxer. But Coles’ trip really stood out as she took the initiative to gallop around the group of fences everyone else had turned inside of, and make a long galloping approach to the last oxer. After she went, there was an interesting mix of choices between the two turns to the last fence.
Addison Phillips made a similar climb to the top, coming back in 20th but putting in a flawless round today to move up to sixth. Adrienne Dixon, called back in eighth, had a solid round today and took seventh place. Zazou Hoffman moved up from 24th to 13th with her round today.
The ASPCA Maclay Finals
1. Maggie McAlary
2. Julie Welles
3. Jennifer Waxman
4. Nick Haness
5. Sloane Coles
6. Addison Phillips
7. Adrienne Dixon
8. Mallory Olson
9. Nikko Ritter
10. Tina Dilandri
11. Katie McDaniel
12. Jacqueline Lubrano
13. Zazou Hoffman
14. Kimberly McCormack
15. Victoria Birdsall
16. Hannah Selleck
17. Eleanor Kunsman
18. Lucy Davis
19. Hillary Dobbs
20. Nicole Husky
