Canada’s Leah Wilson Wilkins Rides “Late Bloomer” Fabian to Victory in Wellington World Cup Grand Prix Special

Leah Wilson Wilkins on Fabian JS in the World Cup Grand Prix Special victory gallop. © 2016 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

WELLINGTON, Florida, Jan. 16, 2016–Leah Wilson Wilkins rode the 17-year-old "late bloomer" Fabian JS   to victory in the World Cup Grand Prix Special at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival Saturday with a personal best score for the second straight competition in seeking to represent Canada at the summer Olympics.

Leah, seven months pregnant, and the Hanoverian (Feiner Graf x Denberg) scored 72.863 per cent two days after placing third in the Grand Prix on a personal best of 71.700 per cent.

In the Special, Denmark's Olympic, World Games, European Championships and World Cup rider Lars Petersen rode the 18-year-old Mariett to second place on 72.098 per cent.

Beatrice Marineau, the German-born rider now a U.S. citizen, was third on Stefano 8 with a score of 70.176 per cent.

Fabian, Leah said after the ride at the Palm Beach International Center's Stadium complex, "felt really amazing in some spots and in some spots there were a few little bobbles."

Solid training with the British Commonwealth duo of Nicholas Fyffe of Australia and David Marcus of Canada over the past six months had paid off.

Leah Wilson Wilkins on Fabian with trainers David Marcus (left) and Nicholas Fyffe placing on wraps n preparation for the World Cup Grand Prix Special awards ceremony. © 2016 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

With this competition starting the qualifying period for Canadians seeking to fill individual places at Rio, Leah is the clear leader but she is expecting to deliver a baby boy in mid April that will take her out of competition for a while.

Since her success in the Grand Prix Thursday, life has "been a bit of a whirlwind, but it's really exciting to be finally bringing out what the horse is really capable of. He's a late bloomer."

"I have certainly surpassed all my expectation," Leah said. "I would have been happy with being in the top 10 in the Grand Prix and the top three in the Special."

Lars Petersen, who expects this to be Mariett's last year in competition, gave his primary goal to get good enough scores to help Denmark qualify at least three and as many as four individual combinations to be able to start a "composite" team in Rio.

The mare had an easy summer and the goal is to compete for Grand Prix scores until the Olympic qualifying cutoff date of Mar. 6.

Results:

Grand Prix Special

E: Lamping – USA

H: Christensen – DEN

C: Osinski – USA

M: Lang – AUT

B: Saleh – FRA

		Rider	Ctzn	Horse				E	Rk.	H	Rk.	C	Rk.	M	Rk.	B	Rk.	T	Pl.
		Wilson Wilkins, Leah	CAN	Fabian JS				71.961	1	73.333	2	71.471	2	75.294	1	72.255	1	72.863	1
		Petersen, Lars	DEN	Mariett				71.176	2	74.118	1	73.431	1	73.725	2	68.039	5	72.098	2
		Marienau, Beatrice	USA	Stefano 8				69.706	4	69.902	3	68.725	3	72.157	3	70.392	2	70.176	3
		Pape, Suzan	GBR	Harmony's Fiorano				68.922	6	69.706	4	67.353	6	70.686	4	68.922	3	69.118	4
		Lane, Megan	CAN	Caravella				078	3	67.843	6	68.627	4	68.725	5	68.725	4	69.000	5
		Bateson Chandler, Kathrine	USA	Alcazar				69.608	5	68.627	5	67.941	5	67.549	6	67.745	8	68.294	6
		Dutta, Susan	USA	Currency DC				68.039	7	66.176	7	67.255	8	65.588	9	67.843	7	66.980	7
		Priest, Kathy W.	USA	Wild Dancer				65.588	8	65.098	8	67.353	6	65.980	8	63.039	9	65.412	8
		Wallenstein, Ricardo	POR	Bem Me Quer				63.922	9	64.706	9	64.216	10	64.608	10	68.039	5	65.098	9
		Rosencrantz, Mette	USA	Marron				62.412	10	62.314	11	64.275	9	67.216	7	61.529	11	63.549	10
		Lopardo-Grana, Cesar	ARG	Tyara				62.353	11	62.647	10	63.922	11	62.745	11	61.765	10	62.686	11
		Uemura, Samira Mayumi	BRA	Tamarindo XI				59.118	14	61.078	12	62.941	12	58.725	14	61.275	13	60.627	12
		Tzinberg, Ellesse	PHI	Pavarotti				59.804	13	61.078	12	58.235	15	59.706	12	61.471	12	60.059	13
		Garweg, Christian	CAN	Delorean				59.961	12	60.941	14	59.765	13	59.176	13	53.882	15	58.745	14
		Bukowski, Lisa	CAN	Santos Utopia				57.020	15	57.412	15	58.588	14	58.000	15	56.824	14	57.569	15