Neither rain nor wind nor mud could keep McLain Ward and Sapphire from winning the $200,000 Budweiser American Invitational on April 5 in Tampa, Fla.

When Ward came on course as the 23rd of 30 to go, only two were clear–Richard Spooner on Cristallo and Christine McCrea on Promised Land.  A light rain had started as Ward set out on course, but by the time he jumped through the triple combination at 6ABC, a strong wind whipped through the stadium and rain began pouring down.  Jumps were tumbling down in the wind, and after Ward jumped the oxer at fence 7, the judges announced he should pull up.

Ward and Sapphire–clear to that point–left the ring and returned to the tent area. Members of the ground jury, after studying the radar pictures of the storm, decided to hold the class for half an hour.  Eventually, the rain lightened, and Ward returned to finish his course.

The ground jury allowed him to jump one fence he’d already jumped and then continue from where he’d pulled up.  Ward jumped the warm-up jump, then halted and continued to fence 8, an airy vertical over a liverpool.  Sapphire sailed over that and the rest of the course.

Four of the remaining six horses in the order scratched–Mac Cone on Ole, Eric Lamaze on Hickstead, Will Simpson on Carlsson vom Dach and Nicole Shahinian-Simpson on SRF Dragonfly.  Margie Engle had two rails on Hidden Creek’s Quervo Gold as the rain continued to fall. 

Beezie Madden and Authentic looked to be on their way to a clear round as the bay gelding nipped over the fences, but the front rail of an oxer at No. 12 fell, keeping them from the jump-off.

Spooner kicked off the jump-off with a four-fault go on Cristallo and McCrea pulled two rails on Promised Land.  All Ward had to do was canter around and jump clear again, which he and Sapphire did handily to win his first Budweiser American Invitational since 1998.