Ireland’s Daniel Coyle topped a baker’s dozen jumping off for $142,400 in the CSI5* 1.50m Thursday afternoon at Thunderbird Show Park in Langley, BC, kicking off five-star competition at MLSJ Canadian Premier week.

Under picture-perfect skies, Coyle brought Ariel Grange’s Gisborne VDL into the Thunderbird Jumper Arena to tackle Olaf Petersen’s short track. They followed Canada’s Ali Ramsay, who had just posted a blistering time of 37.97 seconds aboard her 2022 national championship winning mount Bonita VH Keizershof with a lot of go and very little “whoa.” Shaving fractions of a second off and leaving a stride out, Coyle and Gisborne VDL stopped the clock in 37.59 to take over the lead.

“Because Gisborne’s a big-strided horse and not the fastest, I did one less stride from the first to second fence than most people. And then the roll-backs were everything and just by luck, by chance, they came up good for me,” said the world no. 20 ranked rider.

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