Riders from ten nations took to the grass for Sunday’s $55,500 CSI*2-W Purica Recovery EQ World Cup Qualifier at Thunderbird Show Park, with just eight besting a tough course set by Peter Holmes to advance. It took ten rounds and a lot of rails to get the first clear ride from Israel’s Danielle Goldstein, but Canadian, Brian Morton, was right behind her, clear with the fastest first round time to guarantee a jump off. And when the class wrapped twenty-eight rounds later up, Morton was still on top.
“I had the advantage of riding first on my young horse, so after that trip, I knew exactly what I had to do when I went back in on Spitfire,”
said Morton.
Morton was back in just ten rounds later with his Selle Francais gelding, Spitfire. “When I had a rail down in the Friday’s grand prix, I thought, OK, Sunday’s my day,” noted Morton. “Spitfire rose to occasion, as he always does, and was outstanding.”
Goldstein was first in for the jump off, but tipped a rail late in the round to leave the door open for the rest of the field. Morton followed and was quick to prove the course could be mastered and setting the pace with a time of 35.63.
“The jump off course wasn’t that long and in some ways that favoured me,”
explained Morton. “Spitfire is 17 and I need to think about fatigue.”
Mexico’s Edoardo Sanchez-Navarro looked like he had the speed and covered ground with his 9 year-old gelding, Alfie Scappino BMW, but the pair were just over the time to beat with 35.82. “When I finished I said, I think I was really fast today, but I was not quite fast enough,” he chuckled.
Ben Meredith (AUS), Lisa Carlsen (CAN) and Karianne Boyce-Lockhard (USA) all posted clear rounds, but were a few seconds off the pace. Former Olympian and Pan American Games medalist, Enrique Gonzalez (MEX) were the only ones to try an angled track through the combination mid-course, and the gamble almost paid off. He looked fast to the final fences, but finished with a time of 36.07 and high praise for Morton.
“I thought the only room that he left was the turn to the oxer, which I think I did faster, but I paid for it after when I couldn’t make the nine strides to the next jump,” noted Gonzalez. “This is a sport that hinges on hundreds of a second.”
For Morton, hearing the Canadian national anthem and leading the victory gallop are sweeter when you can do it on home turf. The Vancouver-native is a regular at Thunderbird and always draws huge cheers from the crowd.
“We both love competing here and plan a large part of our season around these tournaments,” explained Morton. “I feel a lot of support from everybody and it gives me that little extra push sometimes to really go for it.”
In addition to prize money, Morton received the SSG ‘Ride Clean for the Green’ $1000 bonus for wearing the brand’s digital gloves.
Purica Recovery EQ is a returning sponsor for Thunderbird Show Park, signing on to the $55k CSI*-W World Cup Qualifier for the second year in a row. Their equine line offers improved endurance for athletic horses, which speaks directly to the care and health of these grand prix mounts.
Competition at the Park resumes June 25th with the West Coast Classic and continues July 3rd with the Western Family Tournament. In August, Thunderbird will host the Fort Classic Tournament from the 13th to the 17th and the Fort Festival Tournament from the 20th to the 24th – culminating with the $100k CSI*3 -W World Cup qualifier.
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