Canadian Nations’ Cup Team for The ‘Masters’

Ottawa, ON – Jump Canada has announced the Canadian Show Jumping Team that will contest the $350,000 BMO Nations’ Cup at the CSIO Spruce Meadows ‘Masters’ Tournament to be held September 3-7, 2008, in Calgary, AB.

Jonathan Asselin of Calgary, AB, Jill Henselwood of Oxford Mills, ON, Eric Lamaze of Schomberg, ON, and Ian Millar of Perth, ON, are the four riders selected to represent Canada in the richest team show jumping event in the world, the $350,000 BMO Nations’ Cup on Saturday, September 6, 2008.

Millar, a nine-time Olympian, will lead the team. Millar recently anchored the Canadian Team at the 2008 Olympic Games in August, helping to secure the Team Silver Medal, the first team show jumping medal in 40 years. For the Nations’ Cup at Spruce Meadows, Millar will be paired with his Olympic Games mount, the 13-year-old Holsteiner gelding In Style, owned by Susan Grange and Lothlorien Farm.

Henselwood, also a member of the 2008 Olympic Games Team, has already had a great year at Spruce Meadows. Paired with her Olympic mount, the 14-year-old Oldenburg gelding Special Ed, owned by Juniper Farms, Henselwood won both the $50,000 Akita Drilling Cup at the 2008 North American Tournament and the $50,000 RBC Cup at the Canada One Tournament. The pair also won the 150,000 Euro King’s Cup Grand Prix held May 18 at CSIO5* Madrid, Spain.

Lamaze, paired with Hickstead, a 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood stallion owned by Torrey Pines and Ashland Stables Inc., comes into the BMO Nations’ Cup as the newly crowned Olympic Champion. His immense success this season also includes great performances at the Spruce Meadows ‘North American’ Tournament in July where he won the $200,000 Queen Elizabeth II Cup and the $50,000 Lafarge Cup. At the Spruce Meadows National Tournament, Lamaze also won the $200,000 CN Reliability Grand Prix.

Jonathan Asselin will be paired with Attache Stables’ nine-year-old Hanoverian mare, Rayana Chiara. A member of Canada’s Olympic Show Jumping Team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Asselin and Rayana Chiara recently placed 10th in the $200,000 CN Reliability Grand Prix at the Spruce Meadows National Tournament. The pair was the traveling reserve for the 2008 Canadian Olympic Show Jumping Team.

A Nations’ Cup is the only competition in show jumping where riders, competing in teams of four for their country, vie for top honours against other nations. Canada will challenge teams from Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the United States for victory over the two-round competition where the top three scores from each team are counted towards the final result.

Once again, the BMO Nations’ Cup will be broadcast on CBC television, beginning at 8 p.m. ET time on Saturday, September 6.