Ocala, FL – The first Saturday night Grand Prix of the 2025 Summer Series at World Equestrian Center – Ocala (WEC) brought 50 horse-and-rider combinations to the WEC Grand Arena for the $16,999 Golden Ocala Regional Grand Prix. In the end, it was Sharn Wordley (NZL) who returned to WEC in winning form, capturing the top spot aboard Della Wordley’s Hagelin (Stolzenberg x Graefin Top) after a thrilling four-horse jump-off.
FEI Level II course designer Eric Hasbrouck (USA) set a demanding track that saw only five clear rounds inside the tight time allowed. The jump-off featured some of the fastest riders: Camille Maynard (USA), Maya Denis (MEX), Lauren Balcomb (AUS), and Wordley himself—who qualified two mounts but chose to save Brin D’or De Haute Melen Z for Week II’s CSI3*.
Camille Maynard and her longtime partner Jack Straw (Quatro De Riverland x Jonquille D’elle), a 15-year-old Selle Français gelding owned by M&M Sporthorses, set the pace with a tidy clear in 47.416 seconds. Maya Denis followed aboard her own Callypso de la Hamente Z (Chellsini Z x Vesta De Greenbay), a nine-year-old Zangersheide gelding, taking a tight inside turn early in the course to stop the clock in a swift 43.838 seconds.
Wordley and Hagelin entered the ring with intent. “It was a bit more than we were thinking it was going to be,” he said of the first-round track. “My horses haven’t shown in two months, so I brought them out tonight to get them ready for the rest of the circuit, but I am glad I did, because they feel great now,” he laughed.
With Balcomb and Verdini d’Houtveld Z still to come, Wordley wasn’t taking any chances. “She did nearly the same amount of strides as me, but couldn’t get up to it because he lost his traction for a second, so she did a circle and schooled around. She probably would have beaten me, if he hadn’t had done that. Hagelin is fast, but ‘Dini’ is turbo charged.”
Wordley and Hagelin delivered a quick and tidy jump-off round to shave off just enough time, stopping the clock in 42.987 seconds to take the win. “I wanted to get him back in the groove of things. We know each other pretty well, but he can sometimes be a bit funny under the lights, but tonight he was great. He was so fast and so careful.”
Wordley now looks ahead to the rest of the 2025 Summer Series, ready to rotate his horses through the upcoming international competition.
$16,999 Golden Ocala Regional Grand Prix Final 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