Speed and power described the two competitions on the schedule today at the Spruce Meadows ‘Masters’. Opening up the evening was the $205,000 Encana Cup 1.60m, and the fastest in the jump-off was Calgary’s own Ben Asselin on Makavoy. The $75,000 ATCO Electric Six Bar featured four rounds of thrilling jumping as Martin Fuchs (SUI) cleared 1.95m for victory on Conte Della Caccia. The Spruce Meadows ‘Masters’ Tournament hosts the best show jumpers in the world through Sunday, September 8. The highlight events of the week are the $350,000 BMO Nations’ Cup on Saturday and the $1 Million CN International, part of the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping, on Sunday.
There were 23 entries in the $205,000 Encana Cup, but only three were able to advance to the jump-off in driving rain. First to return was Christian Ahlmann (GER) on Taloubet Z. They had a rail at fence 15, an oxer off a right-hand rollback, for four faults and finished with a time of 46.73 seconds. Francois Mathy (BEL) and Espadon van de Kranenburg also had four faults, but with a slower time of 55.08 seconds.
Last in, Asselin and Makavoy were efficient through the turns and as they cleared the final oxer, the crowd burst into cheers when the scoreboard flashed #1. They posted a time of 53.94 seconds for the win. “We originally had [planned] a pretty fast track to try to have a clear round, but when I walked up everyone told me that both riders had four faults. I took a bit of a risk going so slow in the jump-off because if I had a rail down, I probably would have been third, but Makavoy was just unbelievable. He didn’t want to touch any rails,” Asselin explained.