Susan Pape’s Personal Best Seals 3 Graces Dressage CDI5* Grand Prix at Adequan® Global Dressage Festival
By Alice Collins for Wellington International
Wellington, Fla. – January 22, 2026—The only CDI5* show of the Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) kicked off on Thursday with the headline class, the 3 Graces Dressage CDI5* FEI Grand Prix, held in a special evening session under lights. Great Britain’s Susan Pape and Harmony’s Giulilanta topped the bill with a new combination career high of 73.63%, eclipsing U.S. Olympian Marcus Orlob’s score on Jane by just 0.043 percentage points.
“It’s very exciting to be honored with a score like that—we keep climbing up,” said Pape, who rides the powerful and responsive chestnut with four white socks for Leslie and John Malone of Harmony Sporthorses. “There’s a lot of commotion, so she was a little tense, but I know how to cope with that. She’s still hot, but she’s focused. I think the high points tonight were the collected work, like the passage, transitions and pirouettes. Giulilanta does a lot of things very well.”
The CDI5*—one of only two five-star dressage competitions in the Western hemisphere—is traditionally held towards the end of the three-month winter circuit in Wellington, FL. This year, however, the top-rated show has been moved up to week three, during which there is also a CDI3* and a CPEDI3*.
Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu completed the multicolored flags on the CDI5* podium, taking third place for Canada with Jill Irving’s 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Jaccardo (Desperado x Jazz).
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