Press release from Wellington International 

Michael Murphy (USA) has been developing South Coast’s Kaida CM over the past year and his efforts are paying off. The mare earned her first five-star victory Sunday to wrap up Week 9 of the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) in the $62,500 Hermès CSI5* 1.50m Classic.

In the competitive class with 22 clear efforts over Alan Wade’s (IRL) track, only the 12 quickest rounds were invited to return as part of the winning round format. Foot speed in the first round helped Murphy and the 11 other jump-off contenders, but the job wasn’t done yet.

Murphy, who bases in Wellington year round was grateful for his mare’s natural speed, saying, “She’s really naturally quick so she prefers to go at that pace [in the winning round format] rather than slower first-round pace.”

Their first-round time put them in a favorable position, but they still had some impressive pairs following them in what proved to be a very fast jump-off. At only 10 years old, Kaida CM is still new to the level, but she proved she was up for the challenge. Not only was this her first five-star win, it was her first five-star week ever.

“I got her from Mclain Ward and my first show was one year ago this week; she did the two-star grand prix,” he said of their start together, proving how quickly they were able to put the pieces together. “She won a two-star grand prix a couple weeks ago on the grass. I’ve been picking and choosing her spots and she is starting to step up with me as I go. My goal is to jump her consistently at 1.50m plus.

“She’s very quick, so the time allowed is never really an issue,” he continued about the 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare (Kannan x Indoctro). “Especially today, she jumps better when you can run her a little bit. It was nice to have a ‘speed-round’ pace for the first round and in the jump-off let her go the pace she really wants to go. She’s happier going like that.”

The pace Kaida CM wanted to go ended up scoring the win in 40.23 seconds. Just behind them in second place was Belgium’s Nicola Philippaerts and Derby de Riverland (Kannan GFE x L'Arc de Triomphe), just a fraction of a second off the time. Max Wachman (IRL) captured third place with Obora’s Laura (Luidam x Nonstop), owned by Coolmore Showjumping.

With his second FEI win of the season under his belt, Murphy is happy with how the WEF season has played out for his team. There are still three weeks to go, but like many riders Murphy uses WEF to prepare for the rest of the year, so he feels the team is in a good place.

“My wife and I run South Coast here in Wellington so we’re based here year round,” he explained. “It’s nice for us; we pick the weeks we want to show, because we can show before or after season as well out on the grass. We’ve been selective about what horses show when, knowing we have the whole year ahead of us. Now, we’ll go back to the drawing board and reevaluate what the next three weeks look like.”