One-Two
Finish for Canadians as Chris Pratt Squeaks Past Eric
Lamaze by 5/100ths for $25,000 WEF Challenge Cup Win
 Wellington,
FL – February 9, 2006 – The third $25,000
WEF Challenge Cup of the young show jumping season produced
the second largest jump-off field in Winter Equestrian
Festival history on Thursday, and saw the red hot Canadian
contingent add yet another win to their growing list
of victories on the 2006 winter tour.
It was the second largest starting field in WEF Challenge
Cup history as eighty-four competitors went to the post
in Thursday’s 1p.m. main event. Scoring was FEI
Art. 238.2.2, Time First Jump-Off. Robert J. Ellis of
Great Britain is this week’s Course Designer.
The afternoon marathon of show jumping action took nearly
five hours to complete.
Twenty-three horse and rider combinations negotiated
the first round track fault free, creating the second
largest jump-off field since 1992 in Tampa when twenty-four
riders advanced to the tiebreaker. Two riders had one
time fault in the first round while an additional twenty-one
duos had a single knockdown.
Beezie Madden returned first for the jump-off and set
the pace with Abigail Wexner’s Desilvio. Madden
tripped the timers in 36.95 seconds. Her lead however,
only lasted until Eric Lamaze and Hickstead, owned by
Torrey Pines Stable, returned two horses later. Lamaze
managed to slice 1.66 seconds off of Madden’s
time to gain the lead in 35.29 seconds.
There wasn’t another serious challenger until
twelve horses later when Great Britain’s Nick
Skelton and Lisa Hales’ Russel, riding out of
the sixteenth spot in the jump-off order, came oh so
close. Skelton, who just arrived in Wellington this
week, flew through the finish in 35.88 seconds, just
5/10ths of a second shy of Lamaze’s leading time.
Lamaze lost the lead to fellow Canadian Chris Pratt
and Susan Grange’s Rivendell, riding twenty-first
in the twenty-three horse jump-off field. Pratt left
out a stride from one to two and that secured the victory
as he clocked in at 35.24 seconds, a mere 5/100ths of
a second faster than Hickstead and Lamaze. “I
know his horse is faster across the ground and faster
in the air, so I think I got him doing the seven strides
from one to two,” Pratt detailed following his
win. “I watched Beezie Madden do the seven, so
I knew it could be done. That’s where I think
I got ahead, and then I took a shot to the second last
jump and he handled that just fine, so I think that
was part of it as well.”
“Anytime you’ve got a class with that
many in the jump-off ,you know it’s going to be
a fast, fast paced jump-off,” Pratt explained.
“I’ve grown up with Eric Lamaze and I know
he’s one of the fastest riders in the world. I
was just chasing his time from the beginning. I think
I was just a little bit faster between the first two
jumps, and that’s exactly where it was won.”
Pratt talked about today’s huge win over a huge
starting field of international stars. “This is
certainly my biggest win in Palm Beach,” said
a beaming Pratt. “I’ve been coming here
for a lot of years, under a lot of different circumstances,
either with a business of my own or riding for different
professionals. This is a big milestone for me, to be
at the top of the international field like this, at
least for today,” he said with a smile.
 Lamaze
knew he was fast. He didn’t know if he was fast
enough. “There are so many good riders and good
horses. To be honest, I didn’t count how many
strides I did from one to two,” Lamaze said. “But,
he’s a bit of a fast horse and sometime if you
concentrate on that too much you can get carried away,
so I just feel my way around the course with him. It
felt fast, but you never know with so many behind you,”
he related. “I thought I was definitely fast enough
to get a very good prize today.”
“Last Sunday was his first grand prix of the season
and I felt he probably needed one more class to be ready,”
Lamaze went on to say. “And that was this class
today so I’m really looking forward to Sunday
with him.”
The amazing success of the Canadian squad continues
and Pratt spoke of it following his victory. “We’ve
got a great group of horse and a great group of owners
right now in Canada,” said Pratt. “It’s
been slowly building the last couple of years, and we’ve
got a great bunch of riders that can pilot them around
there. I really think we’re on a serious upward
swing with the Canadian team as far as international
results go. We’ve got some great depth of horses.
There are six or eight people that are well mounted
and could represent Canada at anytime, so I’m
excited.” said Pratt.
“Like Chris said, we’ve got a strong field
of Canadians that this year, have come for the whole
circuit,” agreed Lamaze. “In the past, many
riders only came for a few weeks but this year with
everyone here it is really showing up in good Canadian
results. It’s all gearing up towards that Nations’
Cup which we won once and would like to win again this
year.” And he added with a smile, “It’s
a World Championship year and this is as strong a Canadian
team as I’ve ever seen or been a part of. When
you compete at this level, you’re only as good
as what you ride. It all comes down to horses. It takes
years to bring riders and a good team of horses and
owners together, especially in Canada, and it’s
all coming together at the right time. I think there
are some good things to come.”
When asked if maybe Captain Canada, nine time Olympian
Ian Millar could now retire, both Lamaze and Pratt laughed
and said, “He could have retired a couple of years
ago, really. We can’t wait to grab that spot on
the team! He’s been there a long time.”
Today’s Round Three of the $25,000 WEF Challenge
Cup Series, the nine week long series of Thursday grand
prix events, is major money qualifier for the $200,000
Budweiser American Invitational at Raymond James Stadium
in Tampa, Florida, are is also a qualifying event for
the all new $200,000 FTI Rider Challenge, a rider bonus
pool of $200,000. Riders accumulate points from
both their performances in the Thursday WEF Challenge
classes and Sunday Grand Prix events. The rider
with the most points on March 12 will be awarded $100,000.
Second place will be given $50,000, third place will
receive $30,000, and $20,000 will be given to fourth
place. FTI Consulting of Annapolis, MD, is sponsoring
the $200,000 FTI Rider Challenge.
From
www.StadiumJumping.com
Photos:©professionalsphoto.com
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