Beezie Madden for the win!

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It was a lovely day at Spruce Meadows and it turns out that our 5$ rush entrance gave us a good spot to see the CP International (first place wins 1M$). We locked in to a cute terrace on the north side with easy access to washrooms, hot tea and soup. As the weather cooled, that was a good thing.


It also turned out to be a great spot to watch a technical hairpin turn from a triple to a skinny that left many riders knocking rails. At one point it almost felt that every rider I took a picture of was jinxed. But then the final riders appeared in the large group of 50, and the clear rounds started multiplying.

Of course everyone was rooting for homeboy Eric Lamaze, who despite his brain tumour is doing great and had won the Suncor cup the previous day. But Beezie Madden took the CP International cup, and 1M$ Cdn, with a fast clear round in the jump off with chunky stallion Darry Lou.

It seems like Darry Lou is not too good with people and standing around so he got to go back to his stall with all the treats and grooms, while the rest of the top 12 had to hang around in too tight CP sheer blankets (marketing) for 30 minutes of endless ceremony. The victory lap was worth the wait and Ill download some videos tomorrow. Beezie got a lovely grey gelding as a stand-in for the ceremony and victory lap.

It was a lovely day and very cool to watch the competition up close. Im sure I will enjoy watching Spruce Meadows events even more in the future.




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