Las Vegas

MEREDITH WINS ROUND TWO AND SHARES THE LEAD WITH STEVE....

Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum did what she does best when turning on the style to win the second competition at the Rolex FEI World Cup™ Jumping Final in Las Vegas tonight and goes into Sunday´s deciding round as joint-leader with Switzerland´s Steve Guerdat.The Swiss are strong as Beat Mandli, who finished third at the 2006 final in Kuala Lumpur, is separated from the leading pair by only a single point while Holland´s Leopold Van Asten is just one more point further in arrears. Overnight leader McLain Ward from the USA lost his advantage when denied a place in tonight´s second-round jump-off by a single first-round error and slipped to fifth spot which he shares with Germany´s Marco Kutscher, but only one fence separates the top seven riders so it´s still all to play for in the closing stages.

Course designer Guillherme Jorge forecast between eight and ten riders into the jump-off and his first estimate proved most accurate. His 1.60m track was always going to test scope but there were some real hard-luck stories as four riders - USA´s Kate Levy (Vent du Nord), Belgium´s Judy-Ann Melchior (Grande Dame Z) and Germans Rene Tebbel (Team Harmony Coupe du Coeur) and Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst (Candy) - were clear all the way only to kick out the final FEI vertical to join nine others on a four-fault score. An apparent error of course by Rich Fellers who steered Gyro from the triple combination at fence 8 directly on to the tricky Rolex planks fence at 12 incurred elimination for the American while Poland´s Lukasz Jonczyk disappeared from the reckoning when taking a fall from the 10 year old gelding Ritus after a mistake in the middle of the treble.Seventh to go, it was Australia´s Edwina Alexander who produced the first clean sheet with Isovlas Pialotta but another 12 horses jumped before American veteran Margie Engle followed suit with Hidden Creek´s Quervo Gold.

Then the clears began to stack up with another impressive performance from home runner Schuyler Riley and Ilian, a great round from Marco Kutscher and Cash and a truly classy tour of the track by Beat Mandli who was lying ninth overnight with Ideo du Thot. Next in, Michaels-Beerbaum and Shutterfly had a tricky moment at the oxer at fence 9 which they rattled very hard indeed. \"The problem started in the combination beforehand\" the rider explained afterwards. \"Shutterfly jumped well in but backed off a little in the middle so I gave him leg and he´s not used to that so he got really strong. He lost his mouth to fence 9 and we didn´t get the distance. I was extremely lucky there as I well know\" the World No. 1 rider admitted.

Holland´s Leopold Van Asten lost none of the ground he had gained by a great performance the previous day when going clear again with VDL Groep Fleche Rouge but Western European League winner Christian Ahlmann from Germany hit the second element at 11 which proved another bogey on the course before Pollmann-Schweckhorst hit the last and that left just four to go in the first round.Steve Guerdat steered Tresor home safely but defending champion Marcus Ehning dropped down the leaderboard when the grey mare Gitania clipped the first element at 11 while fellow-German Markus Beerbaum lost his grip on second spot when Leena lowered the middle of the triple combination. As riders competed in reverse order of merit Thursday´s winner McLain Ward was last into the ring but to the horror of the home crowd Sapphire, who seemed to have lost a little of her sparkle, lowered the oxer at fence nine to return a four-fault result and miss out on a place in the timed round.Alexander and Pialotta were pathfinders against the clock but hit the third fence consisting of the first two elements of the treble which was now reduced to a double of vertical to oxer, picking up four faults in 32.15 seconds.

The opening oxer was followed by a sharp left-hand turn to a vertical and the distance to the following double of vertical-to-oxer proved influential, with riders going on five strides often finding themselves too deep and only the big gallopers making it on four. Engle and Quervo´s Gold hit the front element here as well as the final FEI planks for eight faults and Riley and Ilian also met the first element of the double wrong and the following oxer. Kutscher and Cash however left them all up to set the target in 32.01 seconds but Mandli´s big-striding 11 year old Ideo du Thot made the four-stride distance to the double look ever so easy and cruised home in 30.89 to raise the temperature significantly. Michaels-Beerbaum then set sail with Shutterfly and opted for caution to the double but she really opened up when asking for a huge stand-off to the penultimate oxer and Shutterfly never hesitated, galloping down the final planks to break the beam in an incredible 29.38 seconds. Van Asten´s mare proved no threat when hitting the bogey first element of the double but Guerdat and Tresor seemed to be in touch until lowering the second-last for four faults in 29.76 seconds.

The win here would have left the 24 year old Swiss rider well in command going into Sunday´s finale but as fastest four-faulter his fourth placing behind Kutscher in third, Mandli in second and Michaels-Beerbaum at the head of the field was good enough to leave him joint-leader with tonight´s winner when the complicated calculation of points was completed.\"I didn´t see the others go in the jump-off\" Michaels-Beerbaum explained, \"but I know I made up time on the turn-back to fence 2 (the second-last). We were on a very forward stride and we were a long way off it but Shutterfly showed his class and his trust for me by jumping it\". When asked if she had been a little conservative in Thursday´s competition she said \"the course was not ideal for Shutterfly. Horses had to stop, start and turn and he doesn´t do that well but he jumped beautifully. When we were only eighth at the end I thought it would be difficult for me to come back but as you can see I hadn´t given up!\"Runner-up Mandli said that he didn´t think he rode Ideo du Thot well yesterday \"but today he was really fighting for me and I´m very happy\". The Swiss rider has a spectacular string of horses to choose from and said he decided three months ago to bring Ideo to Las Vegas \"because he is good jumping indoors, he likes tight places and he was very good in Kuala Lumpur last year\". Kutscher explained that he had been having some reservations about bringing Cash to the World Cup final but he had been out of action for a few weeks due to an injury. \"I wasn´t sure whether to bring him but I knew he likes Las Vegas - he was eighth here in the World Cup in 2005 and I´m very happy with third place today.\"If the statistics are anything to go by then anyone lying sixth or better is still well in with a chance of winning the 2006/2007 FEI World Cup™ Jumping title when the top two-thirds of the starting order - a total of 27 horses and riders - return to the Thomas & Mack Arena on Sunday. Michaels-Beerbaum recalled that she was lying sixth after the second competition before winning in 2005 while Mandli said he was lying second after the second competition last year before eventually finishing third. Meredith said \"the difference between Shutterfly in 2005 and 2007 is that the combination is better. I came here with the intention of showing that my relationship with the horse has improved over the last two years and whether I win or not I´m proud of that\".For Marcus Ehning the chances of making it a back-to-back double of wins have become a bit more remote but, lying eighth after the first two legs, he will only be carrying five penalties into Sunday´s decider so he´s not out of it yet. Michaels-Beerbaum looks hungry to stake her claim to the World Cup title for a second time but Guerdat is unlikely to flinch at the challenge that faces him on Sunday so it´s shaping up for a fight to the finish....