Edited press release from Spruce Meadows

It was a full house on Championship Sunday at the Spruce Meadows 'Masters'. The stands were packed to watch the best horses and riders in the world compete for a piece of the $3 million dollar purse in the CP 'International', presented by Rolex. This highly coveted title is also one of four legs of the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping and Live Contender Gerrit Nieberg (GER) was hoping to continue his Grand Slam journey at Spruce Meadows.  

FEI course designer Leopoldo Palacios (VEN) and his team, Anthony d'Ambrosio (USA), Peter Grant (CAN), Florencio Hernandez (MEX), Joey Rycroft (CAN) and Jedd Smith (CAN), were tasked to build a track worthy of the $1 million dollar first place prize to the horse-and-rider combination that could pass all the tests and best the rest of them. The challenging track was 570m in length and featured 14 obstacles (17 jumping efforts) – all having to be completed in 86 seconds or less.  

After round one, the top twelve consisted of five of the fastest four-faulters – that included Live Grand Slam Contender Gerrit Nieberg (GER), one rider on a single time fault and four riders on a score of zero: Gilles Thomas (BEL), Mclain Ward (USA), Steve Guerdat (SUI) and Daniel Deusser (GER). The riders returned in reverse order of faults and time, and carried any faults from round one forward to their final score. 

In a rare event for this Grand Prix, three athletes posted double clear rounds and made it to the jump-off: Steve Guerdat on Venard De Cerisy (Open Up Semilly x Djalisco du Guet), Gilles Thomas on Aretino 13 (Artani 2 x Caretino), as well as Daniel Deusser on Killer Queen VDM (Eldorado vd Zeshoek x For Pleasure).

In the jump-off, Guerdat opened with an unfortunate rail, followed by Thomas who finished on eight faults and the pressure was on for Deusser to jump clear. Aboard his championship horse Killer Queen VDM, Deusser jumped his third clear round of the day with a time of 45.78 seconds to secure the win. With four faults and a time of 41.70 seconds, Guerdat – last year's winner of this Grand Prix – had to settle for second, and Thomas for third. With a total score of four faults, picked up in round one, Eugenio Garza Perez (MEX) and Contago (Cornet Obolensky x Cassini II) finished fourth, while Gerrit Nieberg (GER) and Ben (Sylvain x Quincy Jones) took the fifth place – also they with four faults in round one and a clear in the second. 

Deusser is no stranger to winning a leg of the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping, however never consecutively. He will now continue his Grand Slam journey later this year as the Live Contender at CHI Geneva in December.

"Spruce Meadows has such a special atmosphere, especially for us riders. It’s our first year competing in front of an audience again and when you come to Spruce Meadows and there’s a full house with so much enthusiasm, it’s an amazing feeling. You can feel the enjoyment from the crowd and you can feel that they are constantly behind you and they have so much love for the sport. Having that atmosphere gives myself and my horse a little bit extra,” Daniel Deusser said after his victory. 

Part of the philanthropic  tradition of the CP 'International', presented by Rolex, continued this year. For every clear round (including those only on time faults), CP donates $10,000 to the CP Has Heart program in support of heart health. This year, between clear rounds (including those only on time faults) and fundraising efforts on the grounds during Championship Sunday of the Spruce Meadows 'Masters', over $124,000 was raised to support heart health through the CP Has Heart Foundation.