Girls Take It To The Wire To Win WEF’s Battle Of The Sexes

The opening Saturday Night Lights event of the 2026 Winter Equestrian Festival started off Jan. 3 with a redemption win for the girls team in the $75,000 Battle of the Sexes, presented by LeMieux, under the sparkling lights of Wellington International. In a tie-breaking match race between Jessica Mendoza and Luis Larrazabal, the girls emerged victorious, breaking a three-year win streak for the boys.

The team was led by captain Kelly Soleau with a roster that included Mia Bagnato, Alexis Bodo, Kyla Makhloghi, Samantha Mackenzie, Caroline Mawhinney, Jessica Mendoza and Kelly Taggart.

The runner-up squad consisted of team captain Charlie Jayne and veterans Christian Coyle, Daniel Geaney, Alex Granato, Luis Larrazabal, Tony Stormanns, Söhnke Theymann and Michael Tokaruk.

The event includes three phases. The first is a speed course where the riders are matched and compete one at a time over the course. The rider with the fastest time gains a point for their team. Following the first phase, the score showed a dead heat tied at four points.

In the second phase, each team had two relay groups, where a trio of riders faced a section of the course with five points up for grabs. Bagnato, Mendoza and Mawhinney led off with a win for the girls, but the boys answered with five more on the board. Coyle, Theymann and Tokaruk kept the score tied with only one round remaining.

The final phase was a match race where riders competed head-to-head at the same time over a course that mirrored itself in the ring. Three points for each race were on the line, and the round ended with both teams again tied. The fate of the evening was decided by the extra match race, where Mendoza bested Larrazzabal, who pulled three rails.

Show jumping fans saw horses and riders decked out in blue and pink as they cheered for their favorites. In front of a sold-out crowd, the final score was 24 to 21 in the girls’ favor.

“I’ve never seen the final round come down to the wire like that, but that made it even more fun,” Mendoza said. “Everyone comes together, and there’s a little bit of rivalry between the boys and the girls. This crowd is so fun, and it’s great for the horses to come out and have fun in a night class.”

Jayne is already making plans for a 2027 comeback for the boys. “It was tense but fun, and that playoff at the end coming down to that final round was really exciting,” he said.

Learn more about WEF 2026 at www.wellingtoninternational.com.