USA Wins $100,000 Nations Cup

The 2015 Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) hosted its $100,000 Nations Cup, presented by Kingsland Equestrian, on Friday evening with a victory for the home team at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC) in Wellington, FL. Teams representing 9 different countries participated in the competition with a win for Team USA over Canada in second and Ireland in third.

Friday's Nations Cup consisted of two rounds shown over a course set by USA's Anthony D'Ambrosio. Teams of four represented the nations of USA, France, Mexico, Brazil, Ireland, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, and Canada. After the first round, each team dropped their highest score. In the second round, the top six teams returned in order of highest to lowest total faults. The winner was determined by the lowest total of each team's top three riders from each round.

The winning team from the United States included Todd Minikus riding Two Swans Farms' Babalou 41, Candice King aboard Bellissimo LLC's Kismet 50, Margie Engle with Elm Rock Partners LLC's Royce and McLain Ward with Double H Farm's HH Carlos Z, led by Chef d'Equipe Robert Ridland. The team had a perfect score of zero in round one and finished on eight faults in round two.

Minikus was the first competitor to jump for team USA in each round and scored double clear rounds with Babalou 41, a ten-year-old Oldenburg mare by Balou du Rouet x Silvio I. King and Kismet 50, a 14-year-old Belgian Warmblood mare (Kannan x Furioso II), jumped clear in round one and had one rail down in round two. After clearing round one, Engle added four faults to the tally in round two with Royce, an 11-year-old Oldenburg stallion (Café au Lait x Grandilot). As the anchor rider following great rounds from their teammates, Ward and HH Carlos Z never had to jump.