Veterans Ian Millar and Eric Lamaze anchor the team in a nail-biting finish.

It’s tough to do math at the in-gate, so Eric Lamaze can be forgiven for telling his teammate, Ian Millar, that his round wasn’t crucial to the Canadian team’s effort in the $75,000 CN Nations Cup.
   
“I told him, if there ever was a time to relax, it’s tonight.  As the class went on, it was kind of hard to follow. The Irish were jumping clean and the British were jumping well, so I kind of thought we were out of it,” Lamaze said sheepishly.
   
“So, I thought OK, and wandered up to the gate, happy as a clam,” Millar said.
   
But Canadian Chef d’Equipe Torchy Millar was keeping better track of the scores.
   
“Then, when I’m about to go in the ring, they tell me that if I jump clean, and the Irish have a rail, we’re going to win this thing!  So, all of a sudden it wasn’t such a lovely evening any more,” Ian joked.
   
As he has so many times for Canada, Ian jumped a second clear round to put all the pressure on Ireland’s last rider to go—Darragh Kerins. When Kerins and Night Train rolled a rail out of the cups, Canada claimed the class, held under the lights on the night of Feb. 27 in Wellington, Fla.
   
“We have Ian Millar and Eric Lamaze with In Style and Hickstead,” Torchy said of his team’s strength. “That says a lot for us. It was a very exciting night for us because Yann Candele, who recently became a Canadian citizen, made his debut for Canada. And what a great debut it was, giving us a crucial clear [first] round. Keean White has a young horse and had a nice performance in the first round, so that speaks well for the future for us.”
   
“Tonight was a little bit like the Olympic Games [where the Canadian team took the silver medal with just three riders]. We had a hard time believing that we were in contention, to tell you the truth,” Torchy continued.

Equipment Malfunction

Round 1 held a few surprises. Lamaze and Hickstead, the reigning Olympic individual gold medalists, looked to be on their way to a clean go for Canada when Hickstead suddenly stopped at the first element of the triple
combination—the last line of the course.
   
As Lamaze circled to re-approach, the crowd could see Hickstead’s broken noseband swinging.
   
“I guess his noseband broke over the water jump,” Lamaze said. “I didn’t realize what had broken, but I could see something flying around his eye and face. He’s a very sensitive horse, and he was quite unhappy with what was going on and he let me know. He stopped, which was a big surprise, but it really was because he was uncomfortable with what was happening around his eye.
   
“I turned around quickly,” added Lamaze. “He went back and is such a great horse that he said ‘OK, I’ve got it,’ and jumped the triple.”
   
Lamaze’s detour cost them 4 faults for the stop and 2 time faults. After Round 1, Canada had just those 6 faults to their name, since Candele and Ian had put in clear rounds.
   
But they weren’t winning. Great Britain and Ireland were tied for the lead, with just 4 faults apiece. Peter Charles on Murka’s Pom D’Ami and Nick Skelton on Transmission had posted clear rounds for the British, while Kevin Babington on Souvenir and Shane Sweetnam on Amaretto D’Arco put zeros on the board for Ireland.

After Round 1, the U.S. team lay in fourth. Lauren Hough had a clear round on Quick Study, while Christine McCrea and Kent Farrington each had 8 faults. Laura Kraut and Cedric posted a four-fault round. The teams from Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico and France trailed.

A Tight Race

But only three riders from each team returned for the second round, and all three scores counted. The British suffered a blow when Skelton’s horse, Transmission, wasn’t able to jump again.
   
“We were a bit unlucky, since Nick was a dead cert to be clear or 4 faults in the second round, which would have wrapped it up for us,” said Charles. “James [Billington] stepped in and did a good job; we’re happy to be second, but I do believe that with a bit of luck tonight, we could have won.”
   
Billington, 22, had been the drop score for Great Britain in Round 1, collecting 12 faults aboard Midnight Lady, a horse loaned to him by Deeridge Farm. Charlie Jacobs showed Midnight Lady in smaller grand prix classes and the amateur-owner division in 2008.  They repeated that 12-fault score in Round 2.
   
Clean rounds from Charles and Ben Maher, on Robin Hood W, put the British on a 16-fault total.
   
The Canadians could be forgiven for thinking they’d be out of the running.
   
Candele led off their second-round effort with 8 faults, bringing their total up to 14. Then, Lamaze and Hickstead left all the rails in the cups but were a hair slow for 1 time fault. Ian’s clear round left them with 15 faults.
   
Nothing dramatic happened to the Irish, but they just didn’t jump clean rounds. Babington and Sweetnam each dropped one rail, so when Kerins cantered into the ring on Night Train, Ireland had 12 faults total. If he jumped clean, they’d win.

Not Tonight

But Night Train, who usually clears his fences with room to spare, just ticked the top rail of a liverpool vertical by the in-gate. Groans of disappointment from the legions of Irish fans echoed. The Irish had taken over the ringside Tiki Bar for the night, hanging signs that declared it the Irish Embassy.
   
With 16 total faults, Ireland tied with Great Britain for second place.
   
Throughout the evening, the Irish cheering section competed with the section of Canadian fans in the seats across the ring. The Canadian cheerleaders resembled a football crowd, with painted faces and chests and waving flags.
   
The bright spot of the U.S. team was Hough, who jumped one of the only three double-clear performances of the night, on Quick Study. Kraut and Cedric had a foot in the water in Round 2, giving them two four-fault scores. And McCrea and Vegas had eight- and four-fault tallies, leaving the U.S. team fourth.
   
“We didn’t have any really high scores—we just had some 4s and 8s,” Hough said. “My horse jumped super tonight. He’s really come a long way in the last year, and I’m excited about the summer with him. He jumped a lot of clear first rounds last year, but he always had trouble with the second round. But I thought tonight he jumped even better in the second round.”