It was a tournament of record crowds, superb jumping, spectacular falls, and outstanding weather. The Spruce Meadows Masters Tournament, held in September, certainly lived up to its international label, as World Cup, World Champion and Olympic riders competed in the International Ring to vie for $2 million in prize money.

“It’s one of the strongest fields I have ever seen at Spruce Meadows in quite some years,” said Canada’s Eric Lamaze, the country’s most successful rider throughout the tournament.

If Canada and the U.S. have ever wondered if they could hobble the Europeans, they should wonder no more. In Sunday’s CN International Grand Prix — the tournament’s $1 million anchor event and the richest show jumping class in the world — it was left to Lamaze and the United States’ McLain Ward to race the clock in the jump-off. Both Olympians were riding their Olympic mounts, Hickstead, and Sapphire, respectively.

In two rounds of jumping, they defeated such top equestrians as Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum of Germany, who was riding Shutterfly, her dark bay Hannoverian. The pair, who for two years were ranked #1 in the show jumping world and are the current World Cup Champions, suffered 24 faults in the first round, failing to qualify for round two.

In fact, Beerbaum and Shutterfly, expected to do great things during the Masters, failed to clench a winning ribbon all week. The 16-year-old gelding is touchy when it comes to overdoing it in the warm-up ring, so the expansive course may have troubled him. They last competed at Spruce Meadows in 2005. Beerbaum also suffered a nasty fall on her horse Checkmate 4, during Saturday’s Nations’ Cup.

“The Canadians have a bit of an advantage because they know this ring. They jump it all summer. They know how their horses are going to react,” said Lamaze. “For the Europeans, it is new and it is an impressive ring.”

Lamaze did his best to try to beat Ward’s fast jump-off time of 37.76 seconds, but lost by 2/100ths, taking a wider turn to one of the course’s jumps. “I just don’t think there was anywhere out there I could have done better. He went as fast as he can go,” Lamaze said.

Having competed in the Nations’ Cup the day before, Hickstead probably wasn’t as fresh as Sapphire who jumped only once during the week.

Ward had been saving his chestnut Belgian mare, determined to win the CN International for the first time ever. He jumped Sapphire in only one other event, the Encana Cup (the tournament’s second biggest class), winning that class with the only clear round in the jump-off. “We’re blessed to be in these horses’ lives,” said Ward, pocketing $325,000 for his CN International win. “She’s such a brilliant horse. She never surprises you.” Ward and Sapphire have won two Olympic gold medals.

It was the Netherlands that proved to be the top country in the $350,000 BMO Nations’ Cup, in what can only be described as a remarkable feat. And their victory came on Spruce Meadows’ Holland Day, a Dutch treat for sure. After the team’s first rider, Angelique Hoorn, had to quit in the first round when her horse injured a tendon after a bad landing, the team pulled together, knowing it no longer had the luxury of dropping its lowest score. In a rare Nations’ Cup performance, each rider executed double-clears, enduring a mere single time fault. It was the first Spruce Meadows Nation’ Cup victory for the Dutch since 1997.

“The pressure was good for us. We knew we all had to be very good,” said Dutch equestrian Albert Zoer. The U.S. placed second with 12 faults, and Mexico was third, with 14 faults. Canada and Switzerland each had 18 faults.

Canada was handicapped going into the Nations’ Cup as Ian Millar’s Olympic mount, In Style, was injured just before the Masters, leaving Millar to ride his second-string and less experienced mount, Redefin. Jill Henselwood also was left without a horse and out of the competition when her Olympic steed, Special Ed, was injured. While all team members — Millar, Lamaze, John Anderson and Beth Underhill — are veteran riders, Anderson and Underhill were on young developing mounts. Anderson’s Terrific and

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