Text © World of Showjumping

Home heroes Eric Lamaze (CAN) and Chacco Kid (Chacco-Blue x Come On) outclassed the rest of the starting field in Friday's CSIO5* 1.60m CANA Cup at the Spruce Meadows 'Masters' 2019. 

A total of 14 horse-and-rider combinations made it to the jump-off – after the time allowed in the first round stopped several from qualifying – and 12 of them decided to give it a go over the shortened track. First out was Lamaze who went full speed from the start to the finish without once pulling back, leaving no room for anyone else to catch up on the clock. 

“You normally leave windows open when you go first in the jump-off, there is always someone finding a way to sneak in on you a little,” Lamaze said after his win. “But Chacco was quite fast today. He doesn’t have the biggest stride, so when I ride forward to a distance he gets going so that was my advantage today. I just kept going and he kept jumping very careful, so it was a good track for us today. It is no such thing as nicely here – go for broke is more what we do,” Lamaze laughed.

“Chacco is very careful. I sometimes have to worry about the back rail of the oxers because he is so careful he stays away from the front rail, which can make the oxers a little wider. But in general you can ride flat out and he has his eyes right on it and he takes care of you. We know what that feels like, and that makes us want to rider faster and faster, it is a great feeling.” 

Even though all the coming riders gave their everything in the attempt to catch Lamaze, none of them even got close to his time. Eventually, Lamaze was almost three second faster than runner-up Rowan Willis (AUT) with Diablo VII (Douglas x Cavalier). 

“My plan was to go faster, but it didn’t work,” Willis laughed. “Eric didn’t leave anything today, so I just tried to keep it as fast as could and I’m very happy with my horse”. 

Third place went to Kevin Staut (FRA) with Urhelia Lutterbach (Helios de la Cour II x Emilion). “My mare is a little bit special. I couldn’t get off her, so I stood in the practice arena to watch Eric’s round on the big screen. Normally when you watch a round on TV it always looks slower than it is. But even with the big screen I could see it was no way for me to catch him,” Staut smiled. 

Fourth place went to Maikel van der Vleuten (NED) with IDI Utopia (Quasimodo Z x Darco) and fifth place to Martin Fuchs (SUI) with Silver Shine (Califax x Balou du Rouet).