Tiffany Foster and Victor led Canada to a second place finish in the 2018 Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ of Canada. Photo © Cara Grimshaw.
Press release from Thunderbird Show Park
Olympic athletes, World Equestrian Games veterans and World Cup Finalists will be on display aplenty this week at Thunderbird Show Park, with 46 athletes and 82 horses representing nine nations set to contest the CSIO5* Odlum Brown BC Open, May 29 to June 2, 2019.
Running concurrent 5* and 2* competitions, the Odlum Brown BC Open features five days of top international sport. Highlights of the week include the $36,500 CSIO5* Artisan Farms Nations Welcome 1.50m on Wednesday, the $36,500 CSIO5* tbird Cup 1.50m on Thursday, the $235,000 CSIO5* Longines Grand Prix 1.60m on Friday, culminating with the $400,000 CSIO5* Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ of Canada at 2:00pm on Sunday, June 2nd.
The Mexican contingent is out in force with 15 athletes lined up to jump at tbird this week, including all seven members of the winning Nations Cup teams from Wellington, USA and Coapexpan, MEX this season—Eugenio Garza Perez, Enrique Gonzalez, Manuel Gonzalez Dufrane, Salvador Oñate, Patricio Pasquel, Juan Jose Zendejas Salgado and Lorenza O’Farrill. O’Farrill is riding in on a wave of confidence after also capturing the Longines Grand Prix in Mexico.
Ireland, winners of the 2018 Nations Cup™ of Canada, is back with the Coyle brothers, Daniel and Jordan, tbird’s most winning rider, Conor Swail, young gun Cormac Hanley and Jonathan Corrigan, who will be making his first ever tbird appearance this week.
The Americans boast a strong field as always with a mixed bag of veterans and rising talents that includes Olympic team silver medalist Kent Farrington, World Cup champion Richard Fellers and ‘Master of Faster’ Richard Spooner, as well as rookie riders Lucy Deslauriers, Eve Jobs and Hilary McNerney. They’ll be well matched by the Canadians with Olympic veterans Mario Deslauriers, Lisa Carlsen and hometown hero Tiffany Foster in the stirrups, as well as rising star Nicole Walker, the top placing Canadian in the Nations Cup of Mexico earlier this month.
Adding depth to the international field are Olympians Eduardo Menezes(BRA), Daniel Bluman (ISR), and Alberto Michan (ISR), plus rider representatives from Denmark, Spain and Sweden.
The full list of international riders is as follows:
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