Spruce Meadows, Calgary, Alberta, Canada - American veteran Leslie Howard leapt to victory against a star studded entry on Saturday afternoon in the McDaniel & Associates Cup at the Spruce Meadows “Continental”. Riding her 11-year-old Dutch bred gelding, Utah, Howard engineered 2 clear rounds over the Bob Ellis (GBR) designed courses that took their toll on many of the 32 entries.

Of the 32 first-round starters, 12 advanced to the jump off to join Howard. Over the 450 metre, 9-jump track that was set for the jump off, Howard was able to post the fastest clear to narrowly defeat fellow American, McLain Ward, by 3/10th of a second.

“He’s finally starting to get it,” said Howard of her big bay gelding. “He has been a bit of a project over the last five years but he now seems to be able to bring both his speed and his jump to the game. I couldn’t be more pleased.”

The former World Cup champion and two-time Olympic medalist will now focus on the final day of the Spruce Meadows “Continental” and its culminating event the CN Performance World Cup. Today’s second place finisher, Mclain Ward, will saddle up his 11-year-old gelding Altares for tomorrow’s big event and try to win his second Spruce Meadows grand prix of the season and a possible $50,000 bonus in the CN Precision Series.

McDaniel & Associates Cup - Top 10
1- Leslie Howard USA Utah
2- McLain Ward USA Vocas
3- Beezie Madden USA Leap of Joy
4- Michael Whitaker GBR Viking
5- Mario Deslauriers USA Cella
6- Caitlin Ziegler USA Valencia
7- Eric Lamaze CAN Coriana Van Klapscheut
8- John Pearce CAN Son of a Gun
9- Richard Spooner USA Apache
10- Leslie Howard USA Lennox Lewis 2