Captain Canada Ian Millar wins the Caledon Cup

October 1, 2015 · 0 Comments

By Bill Rea
Ian Millar is this year’s winner of the Caledon Cup.
He claimed the title Sunday after emerging victorious in the $75,000 Caledon Cup Championship — Phase 3, at the Canadian Show Jumping Tournament, held at the Caledon Pan Am Equestrian Park in Palgrave.
Millar, riding Teddy du Bosquetiau, belonging to Emily Kinch, was among 34 horse-and-rider combinations entered in Sunday’s event, and among the six that made it to the jump off. He turned in a clear round in the second outing, doing it in 44.49 seconds, less than a second faster than his nearest competitors.
Surprisingly, there was a tie for second place. Olympic team silver medalist Mac Cone of King City was clear in the jump off aboard Gasper van den Doorn, with a time of 45.31. But Hyde Moffatt of Brantford, riding Egor, was clear in exactly the same time.
“That’s weird,” Cone remarked later.
Conor Swail from Ireland, but who’s currently based out of Cheltenham, completed the jump off in an impressive 41.56 seconds on Grafton, but he knocked down a rail in the process, leaving him in fourth.
Leslie Burr-Howard of Darien, Connecticut, was fifth on Utah, followed by Isabelle Lapierre of Levis, Quebec, riding Cescha M.
Millar’s daughter Amy was the winner in the second phase of the competition, a $35,000 event Friday, riding Heros.
The pair put in a good showing Sunday, jumping clear in the first round. Unfortunately for them, however, they took more than a second too long to do it, and ended up with a time fault. They ended up in seventh place. Vanessa Mannix of Calgary was also clear on Gerand Cru VD Vijk Eiken, but they were more than two seconds too slow. Jonathon Millar also picked up a single fault riding Star Power, and that kept him out of the jump off.
Ian Millar had another mount in the competition, Dixson, the 12-year-old bay Belgian Warmblood gelding owned by Susan and Ariel Grange, which he rode to team gold in the recent Pan Am Games. Dixson made too much of a splash at the water jump, however, and ended up with four faults and 13th place in the final standings.
He wasn’t too put out that his main mount didn’t make it to the winner’s circle. “Dixson’s had a very full year,” he observed, adding the unpredictability is one of the big appeals of show jumping. Besides, Teddy du Bosquetiau is no strenger to major competition. Kinch rode the a 12-year-old Belgian Sport Horse gelding in the Pan Am Games, competing for Barbados.
“I just got the ride a week ago Tuesday,” he remarked. “Obviously, I couldn’t be more pleased with his performance.”
He added it usually takes up to a year for a rider to develop a good partnership with is mount.
Sunday’s course, designed by Bernardo Cabral of Portugal, was an exacting one, taking a toll on the competitors. Three riders withdrew in the middle of their rounds. There were 16 others who collected time faults. The first element in a double combination near the end of the course provided a lot of grief for many competitors. At least 16 riders knocked a rail down there.
Millar agreed that was a complicated jump, which the horses had to approach at a difficult angle. Coming late in the course, he said riders, aware of the time, might have approached it too fast. Or if they were too direct in the approach, the horse might have been confused.
“It was a real trick to get it right,” he concluded.
Cone was pleased with the performance of his mount, a nine-year-old belonging to Mark Samuel of Chadburn Holdings Inc. of King City.
“I have a good horse,” he said. “I’ve been riding it most of the season.”
“He just feels like he’s quite a special horse,” Cone added.
The Caledon Cup, held annually at the CSI2* Canadian Show Jumping Tournament, is comprised of three phases. Darrin Dlin of Calgary won the opening phase, the $10,000 Caledon Cup – Phase One, presented by Equestrian Management Group, last Thursday
Friday evening saw 34 grand prix competitors headed indoors for the first time in the Canadian Show Jumping Tournament’s history, making full use of the Caledon Pan Am Equestrian Park’s legacy from the Games.

This jump caused problems for horses and riders all afternoon, but Ian Millar had no trouble getting Teddy du Bosquetiau over it, on his way to winning Sunday’s event.