As the weather turned a bit stormy and rain began to fall, the 5* competitors at the Longines Global Champions Tour Mexico City jumped on. International course designer Uliano Vezzani (ITA) set a difficult 1.50-1.55m track that put even some of the best riders in the world to the test. Of 52 entries, only eight were clean and six double clean, with Canada’s Eric Lamaze laying down the gauntlet aboard his Olympic Bronze Medal mount Fine Lady for the win.
The sixteen efforts asked a multitude of questions including adjustability and scope. A delicate plank coming out of a forward four-stride concluded the course at far corner of the expansive grass field. Several riders had a heartbreaking four faults at that ultimate obstacle.
In the jump-off, Nicola Philippaerts (BEL) and nine-year-old Holsteiner stallion Chilli Willi set the pace going double clean in 42.34. Slicing a second off that time, Italy’s Alberto Zorzi finished double clean in 41.33 with Cornetto K. Then in galloped the fifth-ranked rider in the world, Lamaze, and his fine fourteen-year-old Hanoverian mare. Without a glitch the pair left out strides wherever they could, finishing in a blazing 38 seconds flat, over three seconds faster than Zorzi.