It was a fantastic win for Mexico’s Nicolas Pizarro this morning in the Friends of the Meadows Cup 1.50m at the Spruce Meadows ‘Pan American’ Tournament, presented by Rolex. This was Pizarro’s second CSI5* win at Spruce Meadows after earning another victory back in 2014 aboard Colasko. Pizarro, who finished double clear with a time of 43.36 seconds, rode the 10 year-old Oldenburg mare, La Petite Fleur. Pizarro commented on his win,“today was a great day, I went very early in this class and I haven’t competed on this horse for very long – it belongs to one of my students – but I have been developing her since she was six. I thought It was a very nice course and being clear, I was first to go in the jump off which is always a little bit awkward. I think it's always better to go near the end, but with such an amazing field of riders behind me, I really tried to do my best.” He continued, “I think I may have won with my approach to the second last fence, though at the time I thought I would end up in second or third. I’m very excited, it is such a privilege to be on top today.”
Kent Farrington (USA) followed very close behind Pizarro ending up just 0.38 seconds off the winning time. Kent commented, “the course really used the whole field, there were a lot of long gallops, so my plan for the jump off was to have a very smooth round and I thought it would be just enough to win – and I miscalculated by half a second – so that was unfortunate but I am very happy for Nicolas today and I’m thrilled with Dublin’s progress.”
Following in third with a double clear and a time of 45.26 seconds was Peter Lutz(USA) aboard Retiro, a 12 year-old Warmblood gelding. Lutz said, “the conditions were outstanding today, both rounds of the course had a lot of space to gallop which really suited my horse who is very tall with a big stride so I was really able to take advantage of that. I was a little bit slow in the middle line of the jump off where I think I lost it but Retiro was great today and the courses had him jumping better and better each class.”
click here for the results
