Wednesday marked the start of the final week of summer tournaments here at Spruce Meadows. The feature competition of the day was The Entourage (1.50m) one round competition - the first of two qualifiers this week for the $1,000,000 ATCO Queen Elizabeth II Cup on Saturday.
Over 45 horse/rider combinations stepped through the iconic clock tower to tackle the 580m track laid out by FEI Course Designer Santiago Varela (ESP). Athletes were required to clear 13 obstacles (15 jumping efforts) in a time of 87 seconds or less. Today the fastest clear round would win the competition.
Riders had to keep up a pace of 400m per minute in order to make the time allowed. Five of riders were able to do so and post clear rides - Conor Swail (IRL) riding Theo 160 (Christian) was the fastest of them all. Swail crossed the finish line clear in a time of 78.45s to secure his victory. Swail is currently ranked 10th in the FEI World Rankings. ABoard Quintin (Quaprice Bois Margot) Daniel Coyle followed as runner-up while Tiffany Foster completed the stage with Battlecry (Vigo d'Arsouilles).
“Every time we go down in through that clock tower, you get pumped up off of that. So it's great to have a good start to the week. All the qualfications were today, now we’ve ticked all the boxes early” - Conor Swail (IRL) on a great start to the week as he’s now qualified for the weekend competitions.
Earlier over 45 competitors stepped into the International Ring to challenge The Stud farm (1.45m) one-round competition. This competition was the first of two this week where competitors could earn their ticket into Saturday’s $80,000 AKITA Drilling Winning Round.
The Irish have had a great string of luck these last few weeks of competition with multiple top placings and wins. Today, Conor Swail (IRL) would add to that list. Aboard Count Me In, Swail soared through the finish line, clear, in a time of 67.89s to claim the win. Swail also picked up the third place on his other mount Nadel Hero & DB. Fellow Irishman Darragh Kenny and California Pie (Captain Cooper) split those placing to finish second.
