With the hype already building to the Nations’ Cup at Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club, the Winter Equestrian Festival opened with a U.S. vs. Canada tussle in the opening 1.45m class between two of show jumping’s best known stars, McLain Ward and ‘Captain Canada’ Ian Millar.

Celebrating his 60th birthday just two weeks ago, the seemingly evergreen Millar, a nine-time Olympian, on this occasion bowed to Ward’s supremacy, but delightedly claimed second and third place riding his top ranked horses, In Style and Redefin, respectively.

It was an auspicious start to the season for Ian Millar, who immediately laughed and predicted, “Getting ready to win that Nations’ Cup again,” a reference, of course, to the Canadian team’s double of jump-off victories over the United States, in Wellington and at the Spruce Meadows Masters in Calgary, last year. He continued by saying, “It’s been a later start than usual for all the reasons we know, but you adjust your plans. Do you know, we rode outdoors until just before we came down here? That has never happened before, so all the horses are very fit and ready to go. They know how to do their job, and did it.”

Millar confirmed that In Style and Redefin are currently the top horses in his barn. “In Style would be one, and the gray two, but only because of inexperience.” Although Redefin had a lighter load at last year’s WEF, Millar’s plans have changed for 2007. “He will step up and do an equal load with In Style, and perhaps even do more as we go along. Although In Style will take the lead for the last couple of weeks, and the Nations’ Cup.” Adding that he had one especially interesting new horse for this coming Grand Prix season, “One called Rivendell whom my team mate Chris Pratt rode last year, and you’ll see him later in the tour.”

Applauding the ground conditions that greeted the riders this morning, Millar said, “That ring is fresh as can be, with a lovely bounce to it. I will tell you that maybe the ground is the best I’ve ever remembered, so I think we’re in great shape.” He continued by explaining the necessity to pace horses for what has become a long season: “The organizing committee is very clever in that regard, in that these first two weeks are limited to a maximum of 1m45, so the course designers can’t go crazy and have to rely on other aspects rather than just size, which protects the horses a lot. What I’m trying to do here is get these two ready to play, and then I’ll just slot them in as we go along and build into the last weeks.”

Naturally, the 2007 Pan American Games in July is a primary focus for the Canadian show jumping team, who need a good result in Rio de Janeiro in order to qualify for next year’s Olympic Games. “It’s very critical to the momentum of the sport [in Canada],and important for our funding to be successful.”

Despite his advancing years, Millar’s competitive motivation is undiminished, but he nonetheless laughed and said, “When that alarm goes off at 5 o’clock you wonder what you’re doing getting up in the dark, but then you turn on that video from last night and get to it.”

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