Jaclyn Duff & Pater Noster Ph. Totem Photographic
Jaclyn Duff and Pater Noster rode to victory in the 1.45m $35,000 Spirit of the West Cup sponsored by GGT Footing and Scott Venturo LLP at The Royal West in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on Friday, October 28th.
The longest course of the year as set by designer Werner Deeg, came down to a jump-off among nine horses, including three mounts from Vanessa Mannix and two from Keean White.
The jump off course had a little bit of everything to test the horses. In the end it was getting an elusive clear that propelled Jaclyn Duff to first place honors, navigating the course in 42.81 seconds. Coming off a fine summer in Europe, Duff is thrilled to get a win in the Spirit of the West Cup ahead of the Longines FEI World Cup™ Jumping Calgary on Saturday.
“I targeted this class with Pater Noster, and it’s really gratifying to get a big win like this,” Duff shared. “He’s a horse who, when he gets in the ring, he wants to win. He puts his heart into every single class. And he’s a great thrill to ride. This is a great show and it’s an honor to win here.”
Hera van der Kouterhoeve (Dawson Van De Padenborre x Winsconsin Van De Cruyenvelda) with Keean White aboard took second place in 45.25 seconds. Canadian Olympian Jill Henselwood piloted Farfelu du Printemps (Action-Breaker x Darco) to third place in 47.67 seconds-an impressive performance after recovering from a knee injury sustained this past summer.
“I really wanted to come here,” Henselwood said. “They said you can’t go. You’re not ready. So I had to pay 75 percent of my expenses to get here. I felt like I got stronger and my horses got stronger as the week went on. If it’s not too hard on the horse I’ll be ready to ride on Saturday.”
Laura Jane Tidball picked up fourth place with a clean ride on Prim’ de Lairaud followed by Vanessa Mannix and Winslow High in fifth while her second mount Nirvana de Terlong finished in the sixth place position.
Competition continues at The Royal West CSI3*-W with the $132,000 Longines FEI World Cup™ Jumping Calgary presented by pandaHAUS on Saturday, October 29th.
Full results at this link.