With 16 competitors in the first round and seven pairs in the jump-off on the course set by Michel Vaillancourt (CAN), Minikus and Amex Z, a 2009 Zangersheide mare (Andiamo Z x Landaris) owned by Bit By Bit Group, were the last duo in the jump-off and secured the win.
"The first round was a nice course," Minikus remarked. "There were parts of it [the first round] that were difficult, but there ended up being seven clean, and they were all top riders and horses. I was fortunate to have two of the seven."
"With my first horse [Calvalou], I lost my power steering going to the vertical and kind of ran into the standard and had to circle and start over. And the other [Amex Z], I thought I could do one less stride from one to two. I thought it was faster to go around the vertical instead of inside and that made for a tighter turn back. I noticed in the dirt, my footsteps were way inside of everybody else's. At that point, I knew I was ahead if I could just leave the jumps up.
"I got lucky at the last jump. It got a little desperate but she gave a good effort, so I am very happy with Amex Z today," Minikus concluded.