Lamaze Masters Spruce Mil

By Paula Parisi September 13, 2011

Eric Lamaze and Hickstead won the $1 Million CN International that capped the Spruce Meadows Masters Tournament on Sunday, Sept. 11. The duo was the only one to go double-clear around Leopoldo Placidos’ challenging course ─ an accomplishment all the more astounding in that Hickstead is now 15 years old.

To his first place prize $325,000 in the CN International, Lamaze also received a $50,000 bonus for winning his second CN-sponsored event of the 2011 season, for a total of $385,000 for himself and Ashland Stables. Ashland principal John Fleischhacker  said he is targeting the 2012 Olympics for the stellar-performing 16-hand KWPN stallion, whose first crop of babies is now on the ground.

“I know him very well, and he wants to jump clear just as much as I do,” Lamaze of Hickstead at the press conference following the event. “He is the best horse in the world, in my opinion, and for him to show it here to his Canadian fans is great.”

The 1.3-1.7M test was formatted such that of the 35 starters, the 12 top performers advanced to round two. Only two pair made it clear through round one – Lamaze and 19-year-old Swiss rider Martin Fuchs.

But it was only Hickstead who delivered a peak performance that second go-round, despite losing a shoe on course. The contest was also a vindication of sorts for Lamaze, who rode the 2010 CNI with a broken foot and lost his stirrup on course to finish third with Hickstead (in 2010, the Netherlands’ Jeroen Dubbeldam won, with California’s Richard Spooner and Cristallo coming in second.) “When you’re riding the best horse in the world, it makes a big difference,” Lamaze noted.

With Hickstead, Lamaze won the CN International in 2007. The 43-year-old Schomberg, Ontario resident ended the 2011 Masters season as Spruce Meadows’ winningest rider, with career earnings topping $3.5 million.

Lamaze is currently the No. 1 show jumper in the world according to the Rolex/FEI rankings. The Masters ended with him receiving the keys to a new Mercedes-Benz SLK 350 as the leading Canadian rider. (Though whether he got to keep the vehicle or it was just on loan was unclear.) Mercedes sponsored the Masters’ inaugural “Evening of the Horse,” filling the air with music and fireworks on Friday Sept. 9.

A record of 89,632 came out to watch the CNI contest on the last day of jumping at the 2011 Masters. Though it’s billed as “the richest day of show jumping on the FEI calendar,” it was actually one of two $1 million jumper events being held on Sept. 11, the other being the HITS Pfizer $1 Million Grand Prix, now in its second year in Saugerties, New York. Though the HITS is mounted to international standards, it does not have the FEI imprimatur as it is an invitational event, created by HITS CEO Tom Struzzieri as a way to thank the company’s loyal customers.

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