Defending champion Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum secured her third Rolex FEI World Cup Jumping title with consummate ease at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas with America's McLain Ward finishing second ahead of The Netherlands' Albert Zoer in third.

The sheer class of the German winner's 16-year-old gelding determined the result on a day when Anthony D'Ambrosio's course building tested many to the very limit. For Shutterfly however limits don't seem to exist. No fence is too high or too wide, and the clinching second-round run from this partnership was an exhibition of near-perfection.

Stamina and concentration played a major role in the closing stages, but most of the leading contenders proved equal to the challenge and none of the top three finishers lowered a pole throughout three days of world-class jumping.

Perhaps Ward and Zoer are a little unlucky that their two heroic mounts are at the top of their game at the same time as Michaels-Beerbaum's extraordinary horse. The American rider's mare Sapphire and the Dutchman's great gelding Oki Doki are exceptional by any measure, but Shutterfly has once again shown that he is in a class of his own.

Ward said afterwards that if he had the chance to do it all again he wouldn't do it anything differently; "my horse and I gave everything we had," he pointed out.

Having established the advantage in Thursday's opening speed leg, Michaels-Beerbaum then reinforced her position with another definitive victory in Friday's two-rounder and sealed the result with clinical efficiency in Sunday's decider. The first-round track was plenty demanding but D'Ambrosio stretched them even further in round two, the double of massive oxers on entry to the triple combination and the final 1.85m-wide spread.

Zoer jumped a clear with Oki Doki and when Ward and Sapphire were foot-perfect once again the only thing that could change the orders was a mistake from the leading partnership. A tiny tap at the opening vertical however was the only thing to be heard in an otherwise flawless tour of the track by the winners, who mesmerised the crowd.

"Horses like Shutterfly only come along once in a lifetime" the 39-year-old German rider said, "and I'm very lucky to have such a great team. Shutterfly has the same groom for 10 years now and he and I are like an old married couple, we know each other so well. He won't take too much work in the warm-up, he's a bit fragile in there, but we are a great example of how the partnership between the horse and rider plays its role in success," she added.

Michaels-Beerbaum talked about her preparation before going into the ring which is also a team effort. "Because Shutterfly doesn't like to do too much it’s a nerve-control thing for me – it’s not easy to do very little before going in to jump at a big championship," she said. "I try to keep him happy, my husband Markus tries to keep me calm and my groom also keeps a rein on me," she explained.