With the opening of the FEI division Wednesday at the Hampton Classic, it became very obvious, very quickly that every clean round would be earned and not given. 

The 68 horse-and-rider combinations to start Wednesday’s $10,000 Palm Beach Masters Open Jumper 1.45m Class included Olympic, World and World Cup Champions. Eight produced clean rounds, and of those eight, four withdrew prior to the jump-off.

Sarah Segal and Camira were first to go but unfortunately lowered the first two fences. Ireland’s Shane Sweetnam was next with Indra van de Oude Heihoef and they went for the conservative clean round, finishing in a time of 36.66 seconds. Fellow Irishman Lorcan Gallagher followed with Billy Onslow and they went for it – and they had the fastest time in 35.84 seconds, but they had a rail down right in front of the VIP tent to finish third with four faults.

Ashe-Cawley and Cassandra, owned by Louisburg Farm, were last to go. Ultimately they went for a compromise – quick enough to overtake the time, but careful enough to leave the jumps up. They finished in the lead with zero faults in 35.86 seconds.

“I didn’t get to see Shane go, but I know as a norm, he’s quite quick,” said Ashe-Cawley. “I just went as fast as I could and hoped for the best! She needs to learn to go fast and leave the jumps up, so regardless of what went before me, we would have gone for it. I think she’s really starting to get it, and I was just thrilled with her today.”