-- GDF press release - The big Eurodressage report on Thursday's Grand Prix day is still coming up. We need a bit of extra time to write down all our impressions....
The undisputed global queen of dressage, Germany’s 12-time Olympic medalist Isabell Werth, burst onto the Florida dressage scene on opening day of Week 7 at the 2026 Global Dressage Festival (GDF) in the World Cup™ Grand Prix on Thursday 19 February 2026.
Her much-anticipated ride on Natalie Stickling-Morzynski's 11-year-old Special Blend (by Sezuan x Hotline) was rewarded with 73.13% and the winner’s blanket despite the gelding losing a front shoe in the first extended trot.
Werth on Top
In a truly international class, riders from six different nations filled the top six spots, with Ecuador’s Julio Mendoza Loor coming closest to Werth at the top of the leaderboard. He rode his own and his wife Jessica Mendoza’s 15-year-old Bretton Woods gelding Jewel’s Goldstrike—whom he partnered at the Paris 2024 Olympics—to 71.196%, which would have been higher but for a costly mistake in the two-time changes. Canadian Olympian Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu scooped third on Jaccardo, Jill Irving’s 12-year-old (Desperado x Jazz), with 70.761%.
On choosing to bring Special Blend, the youngest horse in the class of 11 starters, she added, “He’s really honest, he travels well, and he’s uncomplicated. Nothing around the show affects him. Yesterday, I trained a bit under the floodlight in the evening, and he was a bit tense, but he settled down and I was very happy this morning. The warm-up was super, and I felt that he was so much more relaxed in the arena. He has real highlights in the piaffe/passage, and all the canter work was nice. I could celebrate on the last centerline and bring the test to the end in a very lightweight way, which is good to see and to feel.”
The class was a qualifier for the CDI-W Grand Prix Freestyle to be held during “Friday Night Stars”. The special gala event will host a stallion demonstration, including appearances from My Vitality, One Million, Zaunkönig, Fortunato H2O OLD, Rosebank VH, Fleau De Baian, and pony stallion Branley Ash Nautilus. There will also be live music from a Grammy Award-winning artist, whose identity is being kept under wraps.
It will be Werth and Special Blend’s first CDI freestyle, and they will perform to a classical soundtrack originally made for Emilio—another of Werth’s Olympic team gold medal winning horses. She will also make sure that Special Blend’s shoe is firmly on, she added.
Cross-Training Pays Off for Jordan LaPlaca
Jordan LaPlaca (USA) was the very first rider down the centerline in the 3* Grand Prix on Thursday morning, marking a host of firsts for the multi-talented horseman from Connecticut. Riding his own and Nancy Hutson’s 11-year-old gelding Gold Play (Grey Flannel x Sir Donnerhall II), they pulled off a personal best 68.913% performance to lead the class and hand them their first ever CDI win at their second show at the level.
Gold Play is LaPlaca’s first CDI grand prix horse, and he has produced the Oldenburg since finding him as a four-year-old at Hof Kasselmann in Germany. The horse’s regime incorporates plenty of cross-training, including galloping, hacking, and turnout, with just three arena schooling sessions a week. LaPlaca himself also cross-trains: he has driven—and won—at FEI level.
“It’s all surreal,” admitted LaPlaca, who scored an 8.5 for his final passage on the centerline. “My original long-term goal was to bring a young horse up through to the international rings, so the first CDI was already a win, whether I won or not. This is the icing on the cake—especially given that there’s so much to improve and it’s just the beginning.
“Gold Play is a very high-powered horse with a lot of energy, and we work a lot on decaffeinating him and trying to keep it all harmonious and easy,” continued LaPlaca, who trains with Albrecht Heidemann and, more recently, U.S. dressage Chef d’Equipe Christine Traurig. “The training process has been very diverse. He doesn’t know that he’s fancy, so he lives like a normal horse. When he was younger, I did my homework and took him everywhere. If the trailer was leaving the farm, he was on it, so he got used to the world.
“He’s a lot of horse, so you’ve got to work with him, not against him,” he added. “I’m just taking one step at a time, but I really would like to do him justice and the sky’s the limit. The horse is sick talent naturally—I’m just the monkey up top trying to figure out how to ride it.”
For now, driving is taking a back seat for LaPlaca while he focuses on CDIs with Gold Play, but he has some youngsters waiting in the wings back in Connecticut. Gold Play will now contest the CDI3* Grand Prix Special on Saturday, February 21.
Related Link
Scores: 2026 CDI-W Wellington