The 'National' Tournament, presented by ROLEX, continued with three major competitions in the International Ring at the Spruce Meadows Summer Series. Topping the $85,000 Spectra Energy Cup 1.55m was Eric Lamaze on Powerplay, who were also yesterday's big winners. Earlier in the day, winners included Darragh Kenny (IRL) with his first-ever International Ring victory and McLain Ward, who added another first place prize to the two he earned on Wednesday. The 'National' Tournament, presented by ROLEX, is the first of five tournaments in the Summer Series and runs through Sunday, June 8. The highlight of the week is Saturday's $400,000 RBC Grand Prix presented by Rolex. This week's top classes include:the $35,000 RBC Capital Markets Cup 1.50m on Friday, June 6, the $60,000 TransCanada Parcours de Chasse on Saturday, June 7, and the 210,000 CNOOC Nexen Cup 1.50m Derby on Sunday, June 8. The course designer for the 'National' Tournament in the International Ring is Guilherme Jorge of Brazil. Thirty-six entries went to post in the first round of the $85,000 Spectra Energy Cup 1.55m, and 10 found the path to a clear round and the jump-off. Jorge noted that he is building for an extremely high quality of horses and riders at the Spruce Meadows Summer Series, so he has to be exact in his design. “The time allowed is playing a big part. The footing here, the horses are jumping really comfortable out of it, really confident. That makes our job harder, but in a good way. We don't want to overdo it in the first week, but I think it's going to be a really good competition on Saturday,” he said. First in the jump-off was the new combination of Tiffany Foster (CAN) and Artisan Farms LLC's Tripple X III. They set a quick leading time of 41.99 seconds, which would hold up for second place at the end of the class. Eight horses later, Lamaze and Powerplay, a 10-year-old Holsteiner gelding by Casall x Limbus, who were able to catch Foster's time. They made quick rollbacks on course and lowered the leading time to 40.86 seconds. With tonight's win, Lamaze passed the $4 million earning mark, now having $4,034,357 as the leader of the Top 20 Prize Money Winnings in the history of Spruce Meadows. Lamaze was very happy to get a second win at the 'National.' He said, “It was a great evening. The courses have been challenging. Guilherme was a little more lenient with the time allowed tonight than he was yesterday, so there were a few more clears. But the course was hard enough. The distance in the triple combination was very short, and you needed a little scope to get over 'c'. Like any jump-off at Spruce Meadows, it comes down to speed. Sometimes the luck of the draw decides the winner in the end.”
