Scott Brash has won the Grand Prix at Spruce Meadows for the second year in a row, just 12 months after claiming the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping at the same venue in 2015.
Riding Lady Kirkham and Lady Harris’ mare Ursula XII, Scott won the CP International, presented by Rolex, which is the richest Grand Prix in the world. In winning, he collected prizemoney of $1,000,000 CAN, and once again became the live contender for the Rolex Grand Slam of Showjumping bonus, which goes to any rider who can win the Grands Prix at Geneva, Aachen and Spruce Meadows in succession.
The Scotsman has become only the second rider to win consecutive Grand Prix victories at the Spruce Meadows Masters, after Rodrigo Pessoa achieved this in 2000 and 2001.
Heavy rain before the event made conditions challenging, and in the first round only Scott Brash, Kent Farrington, Lorenzo de Luca and McLain Ward produced clear rounds. Twelve went through to the second phase, but only Brash and Ward went clear to go into a jump-off, after Italy’s Lorenzo de Luca picked up a single time fault.
Scott was first to jump, and once again produced a stunning clear. When McLain knocked a pole at the Rolex vertical, the victory went to Scott.
His talented mare Ursula only started jumping again earlier this year following a lengthy layoff, but has been on good form, including coming second in the Rolex Grand Prix at CHIO Aachen in June.
“Ursula was the number one horse in the world, but never actually won a Grand Prix. She was second so many times in so many big Grands Prix, but never actually won one, so to go through two years of injury and finally get back to the top end of this sport and to win the biggest Grand Prix in the world, here, I’m absolutely over the moon for the horse,” said Scott.
Scott Brash now plans to take Ursula to CHI Geneva in December to compete in the Rolex Grand Prix, the final Major of the year.
“They are the biggest Grands Prix in the world: Geneva, Aachen, Calgary. To win them once in your lifetime, I feel pretty privileged to have done that, but to win all three in a row, you can have the best horse in the world but it’s still really, really difficult. I’ll try my very best, but it is very difficult. You could go twenty or thirty years before it’s done again.”
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