Las Vegas—April 18  

What do you do when you’re already the reigning World Cup, European, World and Olympic champion? 

You win another World Cup Final.

Once again, Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro emerged as the title winner of the 2015 FEI Reem Acra Dressage World Cup Final after scoring a 94.19 percent. The score fell just shy of breaking her current world record of 94.30 percent. Before the British pair took command of the class, the highest score had come from the United States’ pair Laura Graves and Verdades (79.12%) who preceded them in the line-up. 

The general consensus around the Thomas & Mack Center was that Dujardin was a shoe-in for the win, which begs the question: Does anything ever faze Charlotte Dujardin?

When asked, the answer is a resounding no.

“For me, I’m just living the dream. Coming here and doing what I do, riding in front of thousands of people, it’s an incredible feeling,” she said. “Having a horse like Valegro; he goes into that arena to perform. That’s the only thing that he does.” 

Dujardin used the freestyle she debuted at last year’s World Cup in Lyon, France—the same freestyle she currently holds the world record with.

As her music filtered through the arena, a selection taken from the film How To Train Your Dragon, the crowd who’d been pretty rambunctious throughout the first half of the afternoon fell mostly silent as they watched “Blueberry” at work. But as the test continued, cheers erupted as the pair floated across the ring; the crowd couldn’t help but applaud their efforts.

“How many horses can go in there cope with thousands of people? I mean we’ve got clapping—I never knew how he was going to cope with the clapping—but I think he loved the American crowd,” she continued. “It pleased him so much, he was just like ‘Woo hoo! I did something good!’ every time they clapped. And it was such a fantastic feeling in there and I just had a really, really good ride, and enjoyed it.”

Dujardin and Valegro are a hard act to follow, but if there’s anyone for the job, it’s Dutch rider Edward Gal. And he and Glock’s Undercover N.O.P. delivered, even though his score was nearly 10 percentage points behind Dujardin. An 84.69 percent is nothing to shake your head about, and Gal was quick to note he’s thrilled with his second-place finish.

“It’s not nice that she keeps in front of me, because I’m old. She has to give me a little more respect,” he joked. “No, but it’s OK. The best should win, and I know Charlotte does an amazing job and it’s an amazing horse so it’s always nice to see. I think when the best win it’s good and when I’m second its also good, so I don’t mind.”

At 45, Gal earned a lot of flack in the press conference for being the oldest of the top four (the girls are all in their 20s), and took it in great stride when he was asked how it felt being the oldest.

“Do I really look that old? It’s weird to be the oldest one,” he joked. “Normally Isabell [Werth] is here, and then they ask her that. I’m still the runner-up so I don’t care. I feel like I’m 25. After a few operations I could look like 25.” 

The Chronicle’s One To Watch, German rider Jessica von Bredow-Werndl slipped into third with Unee BB (80.39%) after concluding the competition as the last to go.

As with several horses before, the stallion Unee BB took a hard look at the World Cup trophy sitting in the middle of the ring. Her test wasn’t mistake-free, but she powered through and finished on a high note.

“As I came in he was a little bit scared of the light on the trophy, and when we started I had some mistakes at the very beginning. Then I thought ‘Well, now I have to go for it, otherwise it won’t be enough.’ Then he felt in really sharp form from one second to the next and he got better and better,” von Bredow-Werndl said.

Highs And Lows For The United States

In her first ever indoor competition and first World Cup Final, Laura Graves and Verdades lived up to the hype they’ve created following their breakout international performance at the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (France) by taking fourth in today’s freestyle.

The freestyle has proved to be a strong point for the pair—they won it every time out at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival this winter, and they didn’t disappoint with a 79.12 percent for fourth.

“I’m very proud. It’s only our second time really competing in this kind of competition with other top European riders—well I guess three if you count Aachen—but it’s different,” she said. “It’s different being here its an indoor stadium. I could not be more pleased. He was really on for our pirouettes today. I was able to kind of monitor my music when I got a little bit ahead of it.”

Graves ran into a bit of trouble early in her test when “Diddy” had a hard spook in their second piaffe—peformed at C in front of a billowing black curtain—but the pair recovered well and Graves managed his energy in the difficult environment.

U.S. pair Steffen Peters and Legolas 92 made waves through the crowd with their new freestyle, which included selections from “Under Pressure” and some custom lyrics to fit the horse. The judges gave them great marks (80.35%) for fourth, but they were later eliminated when blood was found on the gelding’s side.

Chronicle blogger Lauren Sprieser joined us with ride-by-ride commentary, read our As It Happens: Reem Acra FEI World Cup Final Freestyles

Follow along with all the Chronicle’s coverage of the Reem Acra FEI World Cup Dressage Final. 

Find out what was said after Valegro won the Grand Prix on Thursday then read about why we love Valegro.

See full competiton results here.