FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
SIDELINES JULY 2012 45
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to put together a deal to purchase her,” he detailed. “Through my
friendship with Mark Leone, I kind of overheard the process and
fnally at the end, I said ‘what’s with this horse?’ Mark spoke very
highly of her. It was through a mutual dear friend, someone who
has been almost a second father to me, Francois Mathey, and my
father, whose guiding light, helped us acquire the mare. I asked
him if this horse was as good as Mark said she was and he told
me it’s a phenomenal horse. I said, ‘ok, well Harry Gill and I are
looking for a nice young horse. We’ll buy it together.’ Funny, I
never even asked Francois what color she was. I never saw her,
never sat on her, never met her, we just bought her,” Ward said.
“I remember she arrived at our farm the day I was leaving for
California to do the Selection Trials with Victor. I jumped her at
three o’clock that afternoon in our ring at home and I knew from
day one that there was something special about this one.”
Ironically, it was ten years, almost to the day, in that same ring,
that the decision was made to bring Sapphire’s glorious career to
an end.
Three owners have been lucky enough to share in the success
of Sapphire along the way, beginning with legendary owner Harry
Gill at frst, followed by Hunter Harrison and current owner, Tom
Grossman.
“I’ve had three different partners on this horse and they should
all be thanked and honored, and I’ve said all along, we all are
lucky to have been in her life, not the other way around,” Ward
smiled.
As far as where Sapphire ranks on the all-time greatest list,
Ward says, “She’s got to be pretty high. Everyone’s got their
McLain and Sapphire winning the CN Million Dollar International
in 2009.
Photo by Nicki Wilcox/PhelpsSports.com
McLain with Sapphire at the debacle that was the 2010 World
Cup Finals in Geneva.
Photo by Kenneth Kraus/PhelpsSports.com
particular favorites, but I think worldwide she’s got to be in the
fve best of all time. She’s had a career that’s spanned almost
a decade, she’s got two Olympic Gold Medals, and year in and
year out she’s been just as good as any horse has ever been. In
my opinion, she should have won one World Cup Finals, she was
second in another. Two World Equestrian Games, two Olympic
Games, six World Cup Finals, it’s a pretty remarkable record,” he
said. “Any venue, indoors, outdoors, big open felds, small felds,
and other than Aachen, she’s won almost every major grand prix
in the world. As far as in the United States, her record speaks for
itself. On paper, she’s, without question, the best horse America’s
ever had.”
When you mention the greatest, Sapphire’s record compares
to most, but as Ward explains, different times and different eras
of equestrian sport make for diffcult comparisons when it comes
to the top show jumpers. “Milton and Japaloup are great horses.
Baloubet, Shutterfy, Big Ben, Hickstead, they are all great horses.
When you talk about worldwide, you’re going into a much bigger
ocean. At the end of the day, all of those horses are incredible
horses,” he stated. “They all had their strengths and weaknesses.
But, they’re all from different eras; they all didn’t go head to head.”
“There’s always that argument too, is the quality getting better
and better as the years go on and how do you compare generation
to generation? To me, to be the best of your era, or to be among
the best of your era is the consideration. It’s like the criteria for
the Hall of Fame in Baseball, where you the best at your position
in your era? I think you look at her and Hickstead and Shutterfy a
little before her, but they were certainly the best of their era. Day
in and day out, they were the favorites,” Ward said.
“For me though,” he added, “she was the greatest. In all of the
years I competed with her, she never once let me down. She
never once didn’t give me everything she had.”