Sharn Wordley & Brin D’or De Haute Melen Z Snag the Win in the $75,000 The Fix Grand Prix 

Ocala, FL – Excitement filled the air at World Equestrian Center – Ocala (WEC) on Saturday night as 29 horse-and-rider combinations stepped into the spotlight for the $75,000 The Fix Grand Prix. A stacked nine-horse jump-off kept the crowd on the edge of their seats, but in the end it was Sharn Wordley (NZL) and Della Wordley’s Brin D’or De Haute Melen Z who edged out the competition to claim the victory by fractions of a second.

FEI Level III course designer Oscar Soberon (USA) set a technical track for the talented field, and nine pairs found the answers to advance to the jump-off. The shortened course quickly turned into a high-pressure showdown, with several riders piloting two mounts as they battled for the top spot.

Ryan Michael Genn (USA) was the first to return, establishing the early standard with a fault-free 50.929 aboard Venezia D’Austral Z. Wordley followed on his first mount, Hagelin, and immediately raised the stakes, slicing off several seconds to stop the timers in a blazing 42.306 seconds.

Robert Blanchette (IRL), last week’s winner with Chardonnay, came close, but his 42.853 seconds fell just short. Rowan Willis (AUS) then produced a new leading time of 41.976 seconds riding Billy Mc Dermit.

It looked difficult to catch, but Richard Spooner (USA) had other plans. Aboard Belle Esprit (Cicero Z Van Paemel x Lafite DI Fer) owned by Serenity Spring Farm, last week’s third-place finisher, he delivered an exceptionally tight track to move into the lead in 41.935 seconds. 

Dominique Damico (USA) and Cava tackled the course next but picked up eight faults. Willis then returned for another bid, this time with Just A Cheeky One’s For Dilando PS (For Pleasure x Dilanda Cha Cha). The nine-year-old Hanoverian gelding flew through the course without taking a single check, reclaiming the top position in a blistering 41.358 seconds. 

With only one left to go, Wordley returned aboard his final mount of the evening, Brin D’or De Haute Melen Z. Having already ridden the track once, he knew exactly what was required. “Hagelin is really fast, but I didn’t want to go full out since it was the first show in a few months for him, so I wanted to ease into it,” he explained. 

When he returned on Brin D’or De Haute Melen Z, he was ready to give it his all. “With [Brin D’or De Haute Melen Z] I could do the two leave outs and gallop a little faster to fence two. Everyone sort of did the same strides. I actually went right too much to the double and saw eight, so I had to slow down to do the nine, but it ended up working out.”

Work out it did—the pair stopped the clock in a lightning 41.228 seconds, just one-tenth of a second faster, securing the top of the leaderboard.

Wordley was thrilled with the gelding’s performance. “He was really confident today. He was great in last week’s grand prix too, and I didn’t go all out last week, so I am really excited about this upcoming winter.”

He’s been developing the now 11-year-old Zangersheide gelding for several years, and the partnership continues to hit new heights. “I got him as an eight-year-old. I’ve gone very slow with him just to get him confident jumping bigger. He’s getting the hang of it now, and today he jumped great. This winter, I hope to step him up to some of the four-star grands prix. He can do it, he just needs to believe he can.”

$75,000 The Fix Grand Prix Results

Explore the daily class schedule, orders of go, class counts, and final results on HorseShowing.com. For real-time scoring, check out Ryegate.Live.

Photos courtesy of Andrew Ryback Photography.
Videos available at ClipMyHorse.TV

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