Meagan Davis Scoops 4* Grand Prix at 2026 Palm Beach Derby, Winning Comeback for Bohemian

Shows

2026 Palm Beach Dressage Derby

-- GDF press release, edited by Eurodressage -- Lengthy Eurodressage report coming later this weekend
Photos © Astrid Appels - NO REPRODUCTION ALLOWED (no screenshots for social media!)

U.S. rider Meagan Davis continued her ground-breaking season on Toronto Lightfoot, seizing her fourth win of the year to date in the 4* Grand Prix as last to go in the class of eight on 26 February 2026. They scored 72.108%, logging yet another new personal best in 2026, an ideal way to herald the eighth week of the 2026 Global Dressage Festival (GDF), which is Palm Beach Derby week, a show dedicated to the late Mary Anne McPhail.

Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén, Sweden’s seven-time Olympian and a familiar face at GDF over the years, finished second with Hyatt, a 14-year-old Apache-sired mare she rides for Lövsta Stuteri. Three of the judges placed the duo first, but their eventual 71.544% meant they had to settle for the runner-up spot. Ashley Holzer (USA) rounded out the top three with 68.478% on her and Diane Fellows’s 14-year-old Hawtins San Floriana (San Amour x Florestan).

Personal Best for Davis

Davis and Toronto Lightfoot received scores of more than 74% from two experienced judges, Christof Umbach (LUX) at C, and Germany’s Katrina Wüst at M. Davis has been riding Scott Durkin’s 13-year-old by Totilas since finding him at Helgstrand Dressage in Wellington in 2022, and they stepped up to CDI grand prix in September 2024. He is the 36-year-old rider’s first and only senior international horse.

“Today, we had true power in the test,” said Davis, who spends summers in Saugerties, NY, and winters in Loxahatchee, FL. “It was exciting to feel those hind legs up and ready underneath my seat bones; whenever I asked, there was more power. Every time we enter that ring, it’s about figuring out how we add the next component. Today we had the energy, and we had the softness over the topline, which is what we’ve been going for the whole season.

“Toronto can be a little looky, but we’ve found that when he’s up in a nice frame, he’s ready for action and follows the lead that I give him, which is super,” continued Davis. “This is definitely one of my biggest wins, and it means a lot because I love the Derby—it used to be across the street from our house—and because of losing Mary last year.”

Davis attributes much of the horse’s improvement to carefully managing him like the professional athlete that he is.

“He gets all the things that any horse could ever want to feel his best,” she explained. “We do his sport innovations: the magnetic blanket, vibrating blanket—he does not want for anything, which I think is necessary for a top athlete.”

Davis would like to make her debut on a U.S. Nations Cup team this year, while her biggest goal is to get onto the squad of U.S. riders who travel to Europe to compete in the summer. She has been going full throttle this year, having relentlessly shown Toronto in no less than three CDIs (Wellington and Ocala) in four (!) weeks time. The Derby is their fourth back-to-back CDI.

Bohemian Makes Winning CDI Come Back

In the 3* Grand Prix, the top three were tightly packed, with just 0.34 percentage points between them, and less than two percentage points between first and seventh places.

Endel Ots (USA) emerged the victor on Zen Elite's Bohemian, with whom he was selected as the reserve for the U.S. team for the Paris 2024 Olympics. He and the 16-year-old Westphalian gelding by Bordeaux x Samarant scored 69.261%. The pair had a 1.5-year break from showing before their national come back in December 2025. Since then Ots has ridden the liver chestnut in five national tests, four of those "hors concours", before their first CDI start at the Palm Beach Derby today.

Ots’s compatriot Christian Simonson —who was the winner for two of the judges — occupied second place on another Zen Elite Equestrian horse, Fleau De Baian. The Jazz x Ulft stallion, also 16 years old, scored 69.065%. Tina Konyot assisted in the U.S. show of strength in the class, finishing third with 68.913% on her own and Earle I Mack LLC’s Everdale 12-year-old, Grover.

Hussmanns TopGun Wins the PSG

Early Thursday morning U.S. Olympic team silver medalist Adrienne Lyle made her international debut on the 10-year-old Hussmanns Topgun in the 1* FEI Prix St. Georges. She led the way with 71.872% on Zen Elite Equestrian’s 10-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding. Until now, Topgun had only shown nationally, albeit with consistently high scores. The tall, loose-moving Totilas x Belissimo M gelding raked in high marks for his canter work, though a hint of a jog in the extended walk, which carries a doubling coefficient, was costly.

Two of Pablo Gomez Molina's students finished second and third in the Prix St Georges. Gomez' girlfriend, Canadian Laurence Blais Tétreaultm, placed second on Lennon with 69.314%, while Spanish Natalia Bacariza Danguillecourt - was third on Romántico Ymas with 68.775%.

Palm Beach Derby Gets Underway

In the opening round of the 43rd running of the Palm Beach Dressage Derby, each of the three selected horses—Ramble On, Esquire WS and Ghandi—performed a Prix St. Georges test with their usual riders.

In the knock-out rounds on Friday night, in which top riders team up with unfamiliar horses and tackle the Prix St. Georges under test conditions, two semi-finals will determine which riders will go head-to-head in the final, to be held during the break in the ‘Friday Night Stars’ evening program.

The top scoring horse today was Westfalian Esquire WS, ridden by Wellington based Australian Hope Beerling.

Related Link
Scores: 2026 Palm Beach Dressage Derby