Ahead of the Rolex Grand Prix: Richard Vogel Is the Fastest in Saturday's Highlight at Spruce Meadows

Richard Vogel won the “Friends of the Meadows” Cup at Spruce Meadows yesterday with his speed specialist, Phenyo van het Keysersbos, delivering a spectacular ride in the six-rider jump-off. He was the last rider. Until then, Lillie Keenan from the U.S.—who is set to compete at Aachen—had been leading the field by a wide margin on the nine-year-old Emerlon, who was originally brought into the sport by Laura Klaphake.

Richard Vogel clearly had a plan. He didn’t send his 11-year-old Phenyo straight into the attack, but let him find his rhythm and made up time with his course-riding. After the tricky combination in the jump-off, he let the Corydon van T&L son go one more time and ended up being almost one and a half seconds faster than Keenan. Incidentally, the two have something in common: they train with McLain Ward. Keenan trains with him regularly, while Vogel does so from time to time.

Third place went to another nine-year-old horse, the stallion Strike a Pose, ridden by Robert Whitaker. He is a son of Whitaker’s former top horse, Catwalk IV, and did his father proud with two clear rounds.

Richard Vogel said later: “Phenyo and I have known each other for a while. We’ve had a few jump-offs before, so I know his strengths. He’s a very fast, very efficient horse. He might not have the longest stride. That’s why I rode an extra stride here and there at the beginning and tried to keep him with me a bit. But after the double, I felt like I was a little behind schedule and needed to make up that time. He jumped great overall, but especially over the last two jumps, where I let him go a bit more.”

Not *THE* Rolex Grand Prix Yet

Although a Rolex Grand Prix is on the schedule today at Spruce Meadows, it is not THE Rolex Grand Prix—that is, the show jumping event that is part of the Grand Slam of Showjumping. That event is scheduled for September 13 as part of the “Spruce Meadows Masters” on the tournament calendar. With his victories in ’s-Hertogenbosch and Aachen, Richard Vogel has achieved the feat of securing two of the three wins needed to win the Rolex Grand Slam of Showjumping. If he wins again on September 13, he’ll be the second show jumper in history—after Scott Brash —to achieve this feat. And Scott Brash’s winning streak with Hello Sanctos was over ten years ago.

Today’s Pan American Grand Prix at Spruce Meadows also promises to be an exciting sporting event. Richard Vogel will be riding his “prodigy,” Gangster Montdesir, who won his very first five-star Grand Prix last year at the age of nine and represented Vogel at this year’s World Cup Final, where the pair finished ninth, though things didn’t go quite as planned.

Their last tournament together was the Nations Cup in Rome, where they had eight faults in the first round but none in the second. They competed in the jump-off for Germany, were six seconds faster than their Mexican rivals, but had one knockdown.

Today, Vogel and Gangster Montdesir will face a pair they already competed against at the World Cup Final: Lillie Keenan riding Kick On. Also competing are, among others, Tom Wachman (IRL) with Kilkenny—the 2021 Olympic horse of his trainer, Cian O’Connor—who is also competing with Gengis Khan. Vogel will also be reunited with a horse he once introduced to the sport himself, together with David Will: the ten-year-old Dax by Dinken. The Holsteiner gelding, bred by Dirk Georg Jessen, has been under Mexican ownership since February 2025 and is ridden in Canada by Tanimara Maria Macari Carrillo, who has already won a Nations Cup with him.

The results from Spruce Meadows are available here.