Royal West kicked off on Thursday, October 19th in downtown Calgary with the first evening’s $35,000 Camelot Cup. Ireland dominated international competition, with the winner of the speed class Daniel Coyle, who bested fellow Irishman Conor Swail in second place, and the sponsor Camelot Stables is owned by James MacDonald, also an Irishman who now rides for Canada.
In a field of 34 starters, the time to beat was set first by Lauren Crooks (USA), then Erynn Ballard (CAN), Swail (IRE), and finally with a blazing time by Coyle (IRE) that could not be beat. The Table C Speed class converted faults to seconds and German course designer Werner Deeg’s track of 11 fences and 13 efforts produced 15 clear rounds.
Coyle said of the 12-year old-mare Fortis Fortuna (Quidam de Revl x Carthago), “She’s actually very good indoors. I knew she’d be in good form. I had a big advantage of having Conor in the ring in front of me. I needed to be really tight to have any shot in this class.”