Richard Vogel Wins the Spruce Meadows Grand Prix—His Third Victory at the Pan American Weekend

While events in Europe were postponed and tournaments canceled due to temperatures around 39 degrees, riders at the Pan American Weekend in Spruce Meadows faced the opposite problem today: heavy, persistent rain, wind gusts of up to 32 kilometers per hour, and chilly temperatures.

Of the 39 pairs that qualified for the Grand Prix, eight withdrew. Two more were eliminated, and five others gave up, including Cian O’Connor, among others. And if New Zealander Katie Laurie hadn’t already shown—as the fourth rider on Django II—that the course designed by Anderson Lima could be conquered even under these conditions, many probably wouldn’t have believed it was possible. The puddles splashed, the poles fell. Until the final quarter, it didn’t look as though there would be a jump-off. But the first rider in the final quarter was Richard Vogel …

A Lesson from the European Champions

Richard Vogel had already won a jumping competition earlier this morning (local time) with yesterday’s winner, Phenyo van het Keysersbos, under these conditions. So he knew what to expect. Riding his second-ranked horse in the stable—behind United Touch S and alongside Cloudio—World Cup finalist Gangster Montdesir, the world No. 2 once again impressively demonstrated how it’s done.

He rode the ten-year-old Selle Français stallion by Kannan rhythmically, briskly, and consistently well through the standard course and joined Katie Laurie in the jump-off. He would be the only one to do so.

The only player to score two doubles

Katie Laurie was the first to go into the jump-off. She rode briskly, but not recklessly. Still, she knocked down a pole. That cleared the way for Richard Vogel.

His horse, Gangster, is a fast runner anyway, so he didn’t have to push him. There was a brief moment of panic when Gangster briefly lost his balance at an oxer, but he managed to recover and landed without knocking anything down. The rest of the course went off like a style jump.

Richard Vogel later reported that the stallion was always a bit intimidated by large grass arenas like the ones at Spruce Meadows. That was one of the reasons he wanted to ride him here. Aside from his competitive success—while his rider held the trophy up to the camera, Gangster, led by his groom, treated himself to a hearty snack of the hallowed turf at Spruce Meadows. That should certainly help build a positive relationship with grass arenas.

All results can be found here.