Spruce Meadows, Calgary, Alberta, Canada – July 05, 2023 – Today marked the start of the final week of summer tournaments here at Spruce Meadows. The feature competition of the day was $5,000 The Entourage (1.50m) one round competition – the first of two qualifiers this week for the $1,000,000 ATCO Queen Elizabeth II Cup CSI 5* 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 was the fastest of them all. Currently ranked 10th in the FEI World Riders Ranking, Swail crossed the finish line clear in a time of 78.45 seconds to secure his victory.
As a few times the past seasons there, Ireland managed to put two of their riders amongst the top three. In fact it was a one-two finish by them.
Daniel Coyle (IRL) and Quintin produced the second fastest penalty-free performance of the speed challenge, securing silver honors in 79.23 seconds.
Tiffany Foster (CAN) gave Canadian fans something to cheer about, finishing third with Battlecry as the result of the clean effort in 83.71 seconds.
Winner`s Circle – Conor Swail (IRL)
“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.
Final Results – $5,000 The Entourage CSI 5* – 1.50m
1) Conor Swail (IRL) & Theo 160 – 0 – 78.45
2) Daniel Coyle (IRL) & Quintin – 0 – 79.23
3) Tiffany Foster (CAN) & Battlecry – 0 – 83.71
Source: Press Release (edited) from Spruce Meadows Media
Photos: © Spruce Meadows Media / Mike Sturk
Categories: CSI 5*, English, Jumper News Ireland, Spruce Meadows
