Ottawa, Ontario — 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 5-9, 2007, in Calgary, AB.
Jill Henselwood of Oxford Mills, ON, Eric Lamaze of Schomberg, ON, Ian Millar of Perth, ON, and John Pearce of Stouffville, 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 8, 2007. For the first time in the event’s 30-year history, Canada enters as the defending champion.
Millar, an eight-time Olympian, will lead the team. Millar recently anchored the Canadian Team at the 2007 Pan American Games in July, helping to secure the Team Silver Medal and a berth to the 2008 Olympic Games. His strong 2007 season also included helping Canada win its second consecutive Nations’ Cup title in Wellington, FL, in March. For the Nations’ Cup at Spruce Meadows, Millar will be paired with his Pan Am Games mount, the 12-year-old Holsteiner gelding In Style, owned by Susan Grange and Lothlorien Farm.
Henselwood, also a member of the Pan Am Games Team, claimed the Individual Gold Medal, marking the first time in 24 years that a woman has claimed the honour. Earlier this season, Henselwood represented Canada at the 2007 World Cup Final in Las Vegas, NV, and won the Canadian Pan American Games Trials. She will also be riding her Pan Am Games mount, the 13-year-old Oldenburg gelding Special Ed, owned by Juniper Farms.
Lamaze, paired with Hickstead, an 11-year-old Dutch Warmblood stallion owned by Torrey Pines and Ashland Stables Inc., will come into the BMO Nations’ Cup with a Pan American Games Individual Bronze Medal to his credit, along with a slew of wins from across North America and Europe. His immense success this season includes great performances at the Spruce Meadows ‘North American’ Tournament in July, where Lamaze claimed the $30,000 Enerflex Cup before winning the $200,000 ATCO Power Queen Elizabeth II Cup.
Having also represented Canada at the 2007 World Cup Final with his Spruce Meadows mount, Archie Bunker, Forestview Farm’s eight-year-old Oldenburg gelding, Sydney Olympian John Pearce began his successful year in Indio, CA, where he took top honours in several Grand Prix classes including the $75,000 HITS Grand Prix. More recently, the duo won the $20,000 Open Welcome and placed fourth in the $100,000 Grand Prix World Cup in August at the CSI4*-W Summer Festival in Palgrave, ON.
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, the Netherlands, 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 7 p.m. ET time on Saturday, September 8.
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