Kent Farrington and Voyeur (Spruce Meadows Media Service)

Calgary, Alberta - The 'North American' TournamentCSI 5* at Spruce Meadows featured the $210,000 ATCO Power Queen Elizabeth II Cup on Saturday with an exciting win for USA's Kent Farrington and Voyeur. With an incredible resume of wins, this was Farrington's first time winning the prestigious competition. He finished ahead of Paulo Santana (BRA) and Taloubet, and Quentin Judge (USA) and HH Copin van de Broy, who finished second and third respectively. The $85,000 TD Cup 1.50m winning round competition was also held on Saturday with a win for McLain Ward (USA) and HH Carlos Z.

Course designer Leopoldo Palacios (VEN) set a big challenge for the horses and riders in Saturday's $210,000 ATCO Power Queen Elizabeth II Cup. The competition was held in a two-round format with a final jump-off if needed. Thirty-one entries jumped in round one with 14 clears to advance over the second round course, but a jump-off was not necessary as none of the competitors were able to finish round two without fault. Kent Farrington took the win with one time fault in 77.40 seconds aboard Amalaya Investments' Voyeur, a 12-year-old KWPN gelding by Tolano van't Riethof x Goodwill.

“It felt great to win this class today. I have never won the Queen's Cup before,” Farrington said after his victory. “I have had a lot of good seasons before, and I have come close, but I have just never won this class. I have come third and fourth and probably every other ribbon. That was really exciting for me today. I think I have a very special horse in Voyeur, and I look forward to big things from him in the future.”

Learn more about Kent in this "One on One" video.

“I was excited to show,” Farrington said of his mindset coming into the competition. “I really think a lot of this horse. I was really angry with myself the first week. I thought I gave away the grand prix, making a mistake in the jump-off. I wanted to be very focused today and give him the best shot to win it.”

Finishing behind Farrington, three competitors had four faults each in round two and were placed based on their round one time. Paulo Santana (BRA) and Taloubet took the reserve honors with four faults in round two and a first round time of 87.86 seconds. Quentin Judge (USA) and Double H Farm's HH Copin van de Broy also had four faults in round two and placed third with their first round time of 88.18 seconds. Sameh el Dahan (EGY) took the fourth place prize with four faults and a round one time of 90.27 seconds with Joanne Sloan Allen's WKD Pepperpot.

Course designer Leopoldo Palacios set tough tracks for both rounds of competition and explained his strategy and reaction to the results, stating, “I wanted the first round as the qualifier for the second round. I don't like to have a jump-off with two rounds. It's not fair to horses jumping big, big fences to go two rounds and jump-off. I want to congratulate Kent and Paulo and Quentin for what they did. This second round was a very, very serious course.”

The riders agreed on the difficulty of the course, and Farrington noted that his horse was definitely up to the challenge. “He's a very versatile horse,” the rider stated. “The second round today was as big as almost any course in the world, and I think that he showed that he is on par with those horses.”

Second place finisher Paulo Santana praised Palacios on stepping up the level of competition with his courses outside of Europe, stating, “I think America and Latin America have to thank Leopoldo for pushing the level of competition over here for the last ten years. I think it's very good for our sport to stay on a level close with Europe. We can see riders like Kent Farrington and Beezie Madden who are always in the top ten in the world jumping here and then staying competitive worldwide. In this course, your horse needed to be clever, be brave, and have power.”

Santana jumped second in the first phase of round one of competition at 9 a.m. this morning and had to wait most of the day to return last in round two. Although it was a long day for the rider, he was happy with the end result.

“Coming in the last round, I thought, 'Oh this is a good position, but there is so much pressure,' Santana noted. “I didn't know if I could make a clear round. My horse had an old injury and he was not supposed to jump this horse show, and I had broken my ankle five weeks before we came here, but I rode and he was improving all of the weeks. He got all the support from the veterinarian team at Spruce Meadows, and it came together at the right moment.”
Quentin Judge finished third with a fairly new mount in HH Copin van de Broy and was quite happy with his result as well.

“It's really special to do well in the grand prix here, especially as prestigious a class as this, with this much history,” Judge acknowledged. “I can't say enough good things about the horse. He has miles and miles more experience than I do, so to have a horse like that going into a second round with tricky jumps, it gives me confidence as a rider. I have been really fortunate to have Hunter and Jeannie Harrison invest in this horse and believe in me. McLain Ward and his team gave me really good advice this summer. It has been great. He has been consistent, but it has been a slow progression to get to this. This really proves that we have done the right thing and done our homework, so I am really happy for him.”

Commenting on the competition, Judge added, “I think the courses were difficult. The first round was difficult, but not impossible. It was a qualifier and the right horses got into the second round - veterans like Kent and McLain, and then people like myself who are just getting into it. It was a good mix of riders. The second round was a hard test. Coming to Spruce Meadows, it's going to be hard, and I thought it was a great course.”