Zilversprings and Elizabeth Gingras claimed victory in the $33,500 Miller Thompson Open Jumper CSI3* Classic Thursday evening in front of a sizeable crowd at the Royal West Tournament.
Gingras and Zilversprings competed successfully the first week of the Royal West, but kept just missing out on securing a victory until the Miller Thompson Classic.
“It feels surreal! I’m very, very excited. Last week he jumped clear in all of his first rounds but had a rail in the jump offs. It’s also our first major FEI victory together! It’s extra exciting to jump double clear today and to also mark our first career win together.”
Twenty-six riders negotiated the technical track set by Werner Deeg. The fast paced track caught many riders in the first round, especially at the technical line to the triple combination coming home to the gate. The course pushed riders to negotiate the course quickly, something that Gingras is not normally comfortable doing.
“I think that the practice from showing here last week has helped me win today. I mean this is why I came here; to practice. I wanted to learn to be a faster rider and to be better for next season. I tend to like to stay out in the corners; to make sure I’m straight and set up for the next jump, but that’s not something that you can do here if you want to win. I really wanted to learn to be a faster rider indoors, and the tracks here have pushed me to learn that skill.”
Zilversprings and Gingras are a relatively new partnership in the FEI competition ring, but have really blossomed together at the inaugural Royal West.
“Zilversprings is just amazing! He’s ten years old, I purchased him in May and I’ve been building our partnership ever since then. I want to thank my trainer, Jill Henselwood and her other FEI student and my best friend Jaclyn Duff; they’ve been such a support to me and I’m so thankful to them.”
Miller Thompson Managing Partner, Shashi Malik and his team thoroughly enjoyed being part of history as a sponsor of the inaugural event. “We were very impressed with all the riders here tonight, they looked phenominal out there. The crowd we had with us loved the show itself. We’re so proud to be part of the inaugural event! We are so proud of John Anderson and everything he’s achieved so far and we’re looking forward to being partners for a long time with the Royal West Tournament.”
Miller Thompson enjoys a reputation as one of Canada’s most respected national business law firms. With close to 500 lawyers across Canada in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, London, Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, Markham, and Montreal, the firm offers a complete range of business, advocacy and personal legal services to corporations, financial institutions, entrepreneurs, governments, not for profit organizations and individuals.
Thank you to Miller Thompson for sponsoring a great evening of show jumping. Congratulations to Elizabeth Gingras, her trainer Jill Henselwood, and their team on a fantastic result.
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