Ben Maher and Enjeu de Grisien Do Just Enough in Adequan WEF Challenge Round 9

Ben Maher & Enjeu de Grisien. Photo ©Sportfot

Wellington, Fla. – March 6, 2026 — British Olympic champion Ben Maher and Enjeu de Grisien earned their first international victory of the 2026 Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) season in Friday’s $116,100 Adequan® CSI5* WEF Challenge Round 9.

“We’ve been knocking at the door,” admitted Maher of his season with the 12-year-old Selle Français gelding (Toulon x Andiamo) owned by Charlotte Rossetter and Pamela Wright.

Maher was last to go among the eight that returned for course designer Alan Wade’s (IRL) jump-off track. Sticking to a carefully crafted plan, Maher pushed Nayel Nassar (EGY) and American Mimi Gochman to their respective second and third finishes with a time of 36.39 seconds.

Riding his own and Evergate Stables’ ESI Ali, an 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding, Nassar (EGY) stopped the clock at a perfect 37 seconds. Rounding out the podium at 37.89 seconds, Gochman (USA) and Iron Maiden, an 11-year-old Zangersheide gelding owned by Rocking Basilisk Farms, took home third.

With a goal to work on riding his own plan and not fixating on what others in the jump-off were doing, Maher – World No. 3 – said of his round, “It was great to go at the end of the jump-off with an experienced horse. I got to see a little bit of what the others were doing. Enjeu is not the fastest horse in the first round, but in the jump-off, you can use his stride and let him go quick.”

“He’s an amazing horse, but he has been in the shadows of some of my own horses,” Maher continued of Enjeu de Grisien, the horse that most recently carried him to second in the Fidelity Investments® CSI5* Grand Prix during WEF 5. “As those horses have had a break, he’s had to hold court on his own, and he’s really shone in that number-one spot and had some great results.”

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