Down to the Decimal: Mendoza Loor Wins Closest Finish in Series History
A margin of just 0.04% separates first and second as Marek reclaims the Series lead.
With just 0.04 percentage points separating them, Week 10’s qualifier was a tight battle for first place. Ultimately, Julio Mendoza Loor took the win aboard his Paris Games mount, Jewel’s Goldstrike, despite a music error that forced them to restart their test. New to the US Equestrian Open of Dressage qualifiers—but not new to the sport—Mendoza Loor rode to an upbeat, bold soundtrack, earning a score of 75.860%. Finishing second was Anna Marek aboard Fayvel, a 14-year-old gelding. This finish puts Marek and the US flag back atop the leaderboard.
Mendoza Loor’s high-energy freestyle music particularly suited “Goldie’s” trot work. The 13-year-old KWPN gelding scored exceptionally well in the piaffe and passage, earning 8.0s from most judges. A stumble during one of the flying changes cost them a few marks, likely making the final score even closer than it would have been otherwise. This marked their return to competition after placing 27th individually at the Paris Olympic Games in 2024.
“There were a lot of highlights tonight in the test,” Mendoza Loor said. “After the line of the one-tempis, he was really there in what I was asking him to do. His performance was amazing."
Marek, fresh off a second-place finish in Wellington last weekend on Fire Fly, delivered a strong test to a freestyle featuring the punchy, rhythmic ‘BOOM’ by X Ambassadors and the playful, offbeat ‘Coincidance’ by Handsome Driver. Her ride was remarkably consistent, with no movement receiving lower than a 7.0 from any judge.
The 0.04 percentage point margin between first and second place is the smallest in Series history, breaking the previous record of 0.210 percentage points, which was also set by Marek—though that time aboard Fire Fly—when she narrowly edged out Kevin Kohmann and Dünensee at Global Dressage Festival 3.
This second-place finish earned Marek 17 points in the Series standings, cementing her position at the top of the leaderboard. With the Final in Thermal, CA, this November, her focus is now on maintaining that lead as the qualifiers near their halfway point.
What’s Next
The back-to-back qualifiers return to Wellington this weekend for Adequan Global Dressage Festival 10’s CDI5*—a highly anticipated competition in Florida’s winter circuit. The entry list is stacked, with top combinations poised to shake up the standings: Adrienne Lyle on Helix, Anna Marek on Fayvel, Evelyn Eger on Tabledance 3, Felicitas Hendricks on Drombusch OLD, Kevin Kohmann on Dünensee, Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén on Devanto, and Julio Mendoza Loor on Jewel’s Goldstrike.
With Marek, Eger, and Hendricks separated by fewer than 20 points, the battle for the top spot is far from over.
