Edited press release from Jump Media
Tiffany Foster (CAN) and Electrique (Emerald x Voltaire) closed out Major League Show Jumping Ottawa (CAN) with a win in the CSI5* 1.60m $182,000 RBC Grand Prix.
A total of 36 horse-and-rider combinations took to the grass grand prix field at Welsey Clover Parks to tackle the track set by German course designer Olaf Petersen Jr. Seven pairs jumped clear to advance to the jump-off but in the end, only two managed to once again leave all the rails in place. Foster set the standard by jumping clear in a time of 41.34 seconds and while American Bliss Heers also left all the rails in place, she did it in a slower time of 43.52 seconds riding Quality Star Z (Quality Time TN x Cash).
It was an all-female podium with Erynn Ballard (CAN) taking third with the fastest four-fault effort in a time of 39.24 seconds riding Gakhir (Spartacus TN x Indorado) for owner Ilan Ferder. Two Irish riders followed in the final standings with Michael Duffy and Clitschko 17 (Christian x Check In) taking fourth and Conor Swail placing fifth riding My Lady Lavista (Mylord Carthago x Levisto Z).
Foster’s victory came soon after her return from the 2024 Paris Olympics where she represented Canada for the third time, having also competed in London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Electrique, her winning partner for the RBC Grand Prix, may have the potential to be her mount for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
“I love this horse, I think she's an incredible competitor,” said Foster of the 10-year-old Zangersheide mare she owns in partnership with 5 Roosters. “She's very intelligent and so far, our success rate in jump-offs have been pretty strong. If I can do a good job in the first round, the minute I pick up that gallop to the first fence in the jump-off, when I send her the signal that we're going fast, everything just starts going faster and she jumps even better. When you have a horse like that, you feel so much confidence going into these jump-offs.”
Heers, who hails from Las Vegas, NV, was thrilled with her second-place finish riding Quality Star Z, an 11-year-old Zangersheide gelding (Quality Time TN x Cash) that her Bridgeside Farms LLC purchased at the end of 2023.
“I'm really happy to be sitting here with these two amazing riders,” said Heers, speaking at the post-event press conference. “I love my horse, and he loves big grass rings. Olaf builds scopey and technical. It was a really nice course.”
For third-place finisher Ballard, who has also recently returned from making her Olympic debut in Paris, the homecoming to Canada couldn’t have been sweeter.
“This is a show that I've been coming to my entire life,” said Ballard, who is the daughter of professional horsemen David and Sandi Ballard. “I rode here when I was a kid on ponies and now I'm riding here in five-star grands prix. I can remember walking across the bridge from the stabling area on Sundays to watch the biggest class of the week, when you used to watch Ian Millar and Big Ben, and it was so cool. Now there are little kids walking across that same bridge to watch us. It's such an exciting thing for us to be able to give back and give the fans that same experience that I grew up with here at Ottawa.”