All Eyes on tbird for Nations Cup of Canada

It’s the Odlum Brown CSIO5* Nations Cup week at Thunderbird Show Park and competition will be ripe with some of the best in the world vying for team ranking points in this all-important Olympic qualifying year.

Team USA will be aiming for a trifecta on Sunday — they won Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ titles in Mexico and California and are hungry for a third.

The top two teams from the North/Central America & Caribbean Division are aiming for a spot at the Nations Cup Final in Barcelona, where they will then have the opportunity to secure a spot for Paris. Barcelona would be nice, but Paris is the goal.

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Currently, the top two teams are America and Mexico heading into this weekend’s third and final leg. With Team USA sitting on 200 points, Mexico on 170 and Canada on 150 following their third and fourth place finishes at San Miguel de Allende and San Juan Capistrano respectively, Canada has some catching up to do.

Five countries will field Nations Cup teams here at tbird: Australia, Canada, Ireland, Mexico and the USA. But there is also the $235,000 CSIO5* Longines Grand Prix on Friday and a concurrent 2* division running.

With 10 flags and nearly 150 international horses competing, here are a few of the ‘Riders to Watch’ this week.

Australia

Katie Laurie has been riding for Australia since 2019, but is now based in Alberta. She contested both the Beijing and Tokyo Olympics as well as the 2010 WEG in Lexington, the 2022 Herning World Championships and FEI World Cup Finals in 2011 and 2015. She has her Herning horse Django II on the list for tbird.

Samuel Overton brings Oaks Cassanova forward, with whom he competed at this year’s FEI World Cup Finals in Omaha. Two-time senior Australian show jumping champion David Cameron has been showing in Florida with success this winter, including on the Nations Cup team in Wellington with Oaks Come By Chance.

Brazil

Veteran of the 2000 Sydney Olympics as well as three Pan-Am Games the 2014 WEG and 2007 World Cup Final, Santiago Lambre (BRA) had a successful fall/winter/spring season competing in Wellington and Ocala, including a third place finish in the 1.60m 4* World Cup class at Live Oak International in Ocala.

Canada

Canada has an impressive 17 riders declared for 5* week, featuring three Olympic veterans — including tbird’s most recent 5* Grand Prix winner, Langley’s very own Tiffany Foster. The Rio and London Olympian is the highest placed Canadian on the world rankings, currently sitting at 52nd.

Veteran of three Olympic Games (Los Angeles 1984, where he placed fourth individually, Seoul 1988 and Tokyo 2020), Mario Deslauriers remains the youngest rider to have won the World Cup Finals. He has brought one slightly less experienced horse in Emerson whom he will be stepping up to the next level, and his Tokyo Olympics mount Bardolina 2.

Rio Olympian Amy Millar has her Herning 2022 horse Truman on the list, as well as Christiano with whom she has earned 21 podium finishes since 2021 (Jumpr App). She’s hot off a win with her MLSJ team Eye Candy here at tbird last week and can lay down an anchor round like it’s in her blood. Oh wait…

Her Herning teammate Erynn Ballard won last week’s 2* grand prix with Game Over and is moving her new mount up to join Gakhir at the top level.

Canadian National Champion Ali Ramsay had two good 5* placings at tbird last week and will no doubt be hungry for more. While Kara Chad and Nicole Walker are coming off 4* podium finishes this spring in Vejer de la Frontera and and Wellington, respectively.

Ireland

Ireland has just six riders on the 5* list for this week, but is deep in talent with world no. 8 Conor Swail, tbird’s winningest rider; world no. 10 and Tokyo Olympian Shane Sweetnam; and world no. 20 Daniel Coyle, who has brought his 2023 Omaha World Cup Final, 2022 Herning World Championships and 2021 European Championships horse Legacy, as well as Gisborne and Jasper, both of whom won at tbird last week.

David Blake’s horse Claude has been jumping well in California. Andrew Bourns joined Swail and Blake two weeks ago in San Juan Capistrano to finish second in their 5* Nations Cup and delivered a double clear for Ireland at tbird in 2022.

Mexico

Team Mexico is sitting in second in the standings behind the USA. Led by chef d’equipe Mark Laskin (CAN) since 2021, they bring a field of absolute veterans in Federico Fernandez and Jose Antonio Chedraui Egia. Fernandez has been a team member since 1994, and has a list of Pan-Am, WEG and Olympic appearances as long as your arm. Chedraui Egia has a slightly shorter but no less impressive list of Olympic, Pan Am and WEG performances to his credit.

Patricio Pasquel and Chakkalou PS have been consistent with clear and four-fault rounds at this level for the past few months. They will look to bring that firmly into the zero zone this week.

Knocking on the door of the top-100 rankings, Alberto Sanchez-Cozar have a “4 faults or fewer” rate of 56% in 2023 (Jumpr App.)

United States of America

Leading the Longines Nations Cup™ Jumping standings with two decisive wins already this season is Team USA.

Undisputed U.S. anchor is Olympic silver medalist and world no. 9 Kent Farrington who, with Landon boasts an incredible 92% top-10 finish rate at 1.60m (Jumpr App) and recent victory together in the 5* grand prix in San Miguel.

Making their senior team debuts are Lacey Gilbertson and Charlotte Jacobs. Gilbertson has been jumping consistently at the 5* level with Karlin Van ’T Vennehof, earning 12 podium finishes across all heights at the 3, 4 and 5* levels since 2022, while Jacobs and Rincoola Milsean have been putting in top-5 finishes at the 4* level.

Young American Brian Moggre brings his seasoned campaigner Vivre Le Reve with over half a million euros won in lifetime earnings together (Jumpr App) and his newer ride Oh My Star Van Strytem who has been jumping consistently at the 1.40m level.

Alison Robitaille is looking to build on her week from the MLSJ Canadian Premier where she won a 2* class with Jikke-Cara and had top-10 finishes with Ester de Maugre and Oakingham Lira.

And you can bet your last dollar Karl Cook won’t have a time fault this week.

Of course this is just a snapshot of “who to watch” this week in the Odlum Brown BC Open here at tbird. Catch all the action Thursday through Sunday, highlighted by the Longines Grand Prix on Friday at 4pm and the Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ of Canada on Sunday at 2pm.

More info at www.tbird.ca.