FEI World Cup Jumping Final: Meredith Michaels Beerbaum wins the second final competition

Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum moved into the driving seat at the FEI World Cup Jumping Final in Las Vegas tonight when winning the second final competition with a superb performance from Shutterfly.

German riders are now completely in control of affairs with Meredith heading the leaderboard followed by Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst and Lars Nieberg in joint-second position while first-day victor, Belgium's Ludo Phillipaerts, lies fourth alongside Brazil's Rodrigo Pessoa going into Sunday's third and final leg in which 27 of the 41 starters will line out.

Las Vegas is the entertainment capital of the world and show jumping here takes on a whole new dimension with crowd participation creating an electric atmosphere. Horses need nerves of steel to cope with the wall of sound that greets their every move but tonight's top performers all rose to the occasion with style.

For the early runners the challenge proved too great as Saudi Arabia's Abdullah al Aharbatly (Neuville), New Zealand's John Cottle (Telegraph) and Japan's Akihiro Okabe (Lord Lester) were all eliminated in quick succession but nine horse and rider combinations found all the answers to Guilherme Jorge's first round track to go through to a truly thrilling jump-off. Thursday night's winners, Ludo Philippaerts and Parco, missed out here when the Belgian rider presented his horse to the vertical three from home at an extremely awkward angle resulting in an expensive four faults.

Fences were considerably higher in this second of the three tests that will decide the eventual champion and, once again, the triple combination proved the bogey of the day but there were problems everywhere on the 13-fence first-round track which could be ridden with a variety of stride distances to achieve a clear result.

Frenchman Hubert Bourdy was first into the jump-off with Eve des Etisses and looked like he was about to set a really tough target until hitting the last, a flimsy railway gate that had to be treated with the utmost caution.

There were just seven jumping efforts this time out and horses were clearly enjoying the greater freedom of movement provided by the extra space after the clutter of their earlier rounds.

Steve Guerdat set the first true target with a superb run from the 14 year old mare Isovlas Pialotta who galloped bravely to stop the clock with a clear round in 33.16 seconds and the 22 year old Swiss rider maintained the advantage when Britain's Nick Skelton and Arko arrived too deep to the penultimate oxer, picking up four faults, and Germany's Ludger Beerbaum steered his young stallion Couleur Rubin home more than a half-second slower.

At just nine years of age however and with a jumping technique that is nothing short of sensational this horse looks to be another super-star in the making.

Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst was fifth into the ring and changed the order in determined style when bringing Candy home in 32.62 seconds. This 13 year old mare has been growing in confidence, particularly during this winter season, and Alois said last night "previously when I was facing a big challenge I have underestimated Candy but she has proved to me many times that she can do it on a good day - yesterday she would have won if she had not had one rail down in the speed
class".

His time of 32.62 seconds was now the one to chase and Britain's Michael Whitaker was doing just that with Portofino when hitting the last fence but Lars Nieberg and Lucie came home clear in 34.09 seconds to line up behind his fellow-countryman in second place.

With just two left to go the tension was intense as Rodrigo Pessoa and Baloubet du Rouet entered the ring but the fences just did not seem to come up just right for the Brazilian partnership and a single mistake in the good time of 33.12 seconds left them vulnerable so now only Meredith was left to challenge for the lead.

Having finished sixth the previous night the American-born German rider knew what she needed to do to keep in the frame and, having made the first-round track look very easy indeed, Shutterfly simply soared around the course once again, leaving the spectators gasping with delight as he shaved a fraction off Candy's target-time to break the beam in 32.56 seconds.

With the results from the first two days of competition now converted into points Meredith goes into Sunday's finale on a zero score but has less than a fence in hand ahead of her fellow-countrymen Pollmann-Schweckhorst and Nieberg who carry three points while Ludo Philippaerts and Rodrigo Pessoa carry four.

She looked to have it in the bag at the FEI World Cup Jumping Final in Milan last year but Shutterfly made an uncharacteristic error and had to settle for runner-up spot so she knows that nothing is certain until the final fence has been jumped.

"Anything can happen on Sunday" she said, "but my horse is in the best form of his life and he has all the ability in the world". She said she would not be "losing any sleep over what the course-builder might come up with" - "I have huge support here from the crowd and from old friends and my family who have come to see me so we'll just wait and see what happens - we'll see where the chips fall".

The first woman ever to become No. 1 rider in the World Rankings, winner of last year's Top-Ten final and right at the top of her game she looks poised to become the first lady rider to claim a major title for many years. Born in California she is feeling right at home in Las Vegas and the chips all seem to be piled up in her favour. But show jumping is a notoriously unpredictable sport and all of the top five riders have victory in their sights - there is no room for either error or complacency as the final moments of the 2004/2005 FEI World Cup Jumping series are played out under the bright Las Vegas lights this weekend.....

RESULT OF SECOND FINAL COMPETITION:
1. Shutterfly (Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum) Ger 0/0 32.56; 2, Candy (Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst) Ger 0/0 32.62; 3, Isovlas Pialotta (Steve Guerdat) Sui 0/0 33.16; 4, Couleur Rubin (Ludger Beerbaum) Ger 0/0 33.77; 5, Lucie (Lars Nieberg) Ger 0/0 34.09; 6, Eve des Etisse (Hubert Bourdy) Fra 0/0 34.09; 7, Baloubet du Rouet (Rodrigo Pessoa) Bra 0/4 33.12; 8, Portofino (Michael Whitaker) GBR 0/4 33.23; 9, Arko (Nick Skelton) GBR 0/4 33.34; equal 10, Hilton Flight (Richard Spooner) USA, Sapphire (McLain Ward) USA, Laguina (Richard Davenport) GBR, Quibell (Jessica Kuerten) Irl, Hooligan de Rosyl (Bruno Broucqsault) Fra, Cash (Marco Kutscher) Ger, Marlou (Kimberley Frey) USA, Constantin (Markus Beerbaum) Ger, Gitania (Marcus Ehning) Ger, Parco (Ludo Philippaerts) Bel 4 faults; equal 20, Riviera (Georgina Bloomberg) USA, Roxana (Anne Kursinski) USA, Sandstone Laurin (Gabriella Salick) USA, El Campeon's So Long (Nicole Simpson) USA, Roxanne (Eric Flameng) Bel, Ilian (Schuyler Riley) USA, Tempete VH Lindehof (Eric Lamaze) Can 8 faults;
equal 27, Novesta (Gunnar Klettenberg) Est, Qwinto (Ibrahim Bisharat) Jor, Special Ed (Jill Henselwood) Can, Cyrenaika (Philippe Leoni) Fra 12 faults;
equal 31, Audi's Jikke (Eric van der Vleuten) Ned, Crazy Love (Ales Opatrny) Cze 16 faults; 33, Coco Cabana (Candice King) USA 17 faults; 34, Andante (Tina Lund) Den 20 faults; 35, Suncal's King (Joie Gatlin) 21 faults; equal 36, Neuville (Abdullah Al Aharbatly) KSA, Telegraph (John Cottle) NZL, Lord Lester (Akiriro Okabe) Jpn, Djane de Fontenis (Grzegorz Kubiak) Pol Eliminated.

STANDINGS GOING INTO THIRD FINAL COMPETITION:
1, Shutterfly (Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum) Ger 0 points; equal 2, Candy (Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst) Ger, Lucie (Lars Nieberg) Ger 3 points; equal 4, Parco (Ludo Philippaerts) Bel, Baloubet du Rouet (Rodrigo Pessoa) Bra 3 points; equal 6, Couleur Rubin (Ludger Beerbaum) Ger, Gitania (Marcus Ehning) Ger, Constantin (Markus Beerbaum) Ger, Portofino (Michael Whitaker) GBR 5 points; equal 10, Marlou (Kimberley Frey) USA, Cash (Marco Kutscher) Ger 6 points; 12, Isovlas Pialotta (Steve Guerdat) Sui 7 points; 13, Arko (Nick Skelton) GBR 9 points; 14, Hooligan de Rosyl (Bruno Broucqsault) Fra 11 points; equal 15, Tempete V/H Lindehof (Eric Lamaze) Can, Eve des Etisse (Hubert Bourdy) Fra 13 points; 17, Ilian (Schuyler Riley) USA 14 points; 18, Quibell (Jessica Kuerten) Irl 16 points; equal 19, roxanne (Eric Flameng) Bel, Laguina (Richard Davenport) GBR 18 points; equal 21, Sapphire (McLain Ward) USA, El Campeon's So Long (Nicole Simpson) USA 19 points; equal 23, Sandstone Laurin (Gabriella Salick) USA, Cyrenaika (Philippe Leoni) Fra, Robinson/Hilton Flight (Richard Spooner) USA 20 points; 26, Andante (Tina Lund) Den 21 points; equal 27, Crazy Love (Ales Opatrny) Cze, Roxana (Anne Kursinski) USA, Coco Cabana (Candice King) USA 23 points; 30, Special Ed (Jill Henselwood) Can 24 points; 31, Audi's Jikke (Eric van der Vleuten) Ned 25 points; equal 32, Nadia/Riviera (Georgina Bloomberg) USA, Qwinto (Ibrahim Bisharat) Jor 26 points; 34, Novesta (Gunnar Klettenberg) Est 27 points; 35, Suncal's King (Joie Gatlin) USA 32 points; 36, Djane de Fontenis (Grzegorz Kubiak) Pol 35 points; 37, Lord Lester (Akihiro Okabe) Jpn 36 points; 38, Telegraph (John Cottle) NZL 37 points; equal 39, Neuville (Abdullah al Sharbatly) KSA, Anthem (Laura Kraut) USA, Clasiko (Lauren Hough) USA 39 points.