Ocala, FL – The WEC Grand Arena hosted 38 horse-and-rider combinations on Sunday morning at World Equestrian Center – Ocala (WEC) for the $50,000 LeMieux National Grand Prix. In the end, it was Sharn Wordley (NZL) who couldn’t be caught aboard Della Wordley’s Hagelin, securing their second grand prix victory of the 2025 Summer Series.
Renowned course designer Guilherme Jorge (BRA) set a track that yielded 13 clear first rounds, leading to a jump-off where the top four placings were separated by mere hundredths of a second.
Wordley was the second to return for the jump-off and the first to post a clear round. He guided the 13-year-old Hanoverian gelding through a swift effort, and according to Wordley, it was Hagelin’s natural speed that sealed the win. “I was early to go. I took 10 strides on the corner from one to two. Afterward, I thought I probably should have done nine because it was there. I think I was the only one to do nine across to the liverpool, that’s where I made up time. I was a little slow on the rollback, and the combination was quite tight, so you had to slow down coming in. The last line was very steady. The only reason I won was because my horse is naturally fast and I took one fewer stride to the liverpool.”
A time of 38.025 seconds proved unbeatable, and Wordley and Hagelin claimed the lion’s share of the prize money.
Reflecting on just how close the jump-off turned out to be, Wordley remarked, “There were four of us within a few hundredths of a second, but Hagelin doesn’t have a huge step—he has a medium step that you can use all the way to the last stride. That means you don’t have to slow down at the jumps, which makes him quicker and quicker over the fences.”
Ireland’s Paul O’Shea came the closest to Wordley’s time aboard Team Eye Candy’s Spy (Centadel x Chaconie). O’Shea and the 11-year-old Oldenburg gelding delivered tidy turns and left out strides to stop the clock in 38.072 seconds, just four-hundredths of a second behind.
Jelmer Hoekstra (NED) was right there with Wordley and O’Shea. He piloted Davenport Farms’ 10-year-old KWPN gelding MTM Fantonius (Falaise De Muze x Ulisha Bella) to a speedy finish in 38.505 seconds to round out the top three.
Audrey Muscari earned the Fastest Four-Faulter award aboard Chester Du Roset with a quick first-round time of 72.503 seconds and one rail down.
Samuel Parot Jr. received the Luck of the Draw award.
$50,000 LeMieux National 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.
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