Eric Lamaze becomes first rider ever to earn $4 Million in Prize Money at Spruce Meadows…

In 2007, Lamaze became the first Canadian jumping rider in 20 years to make the top ten in the world rankings. He also became the first North American jumping rider to exceed one million in prize money a year, a third of these earnings came as a result of winning the CN International Grand Prix at Spruce Meadows. Today, Eric earned his second consecutive victory at Spruce Meadows within two days, and his sixth major CSI5* victory in three weeks, which allowed him to become the first rider to ever win $4 Million in prize money at Canada’s Spruce Meadows.

This week in Calgary, Lamaze makes history as the first rider to earn $4 Million in prize money at Canada’s Spruce Meadows. Thursday’s winning ride in the $85,000 Spectra Energy Cup came aboard Power Play, and his night was made even better by the fact he also finished third while riding Artisan Farm’s Zigali, which netted Lamaze $12,750.

That prize money made the 2008 Olympic gold medallist the first rider ever to crack $4-million in career earnings at Calgary’s Spruce Meadows, finishing the day with $4,034,357 to his name. So needless to say, Lamaze is in a pretty good place right now.

“It was a great evening,” Lamaze said. “The courses have been challenging, (Guilherme Jorge) has been a little more lenient with the time allowed tonight than he was yesterday, so there were a few more clears. Like any other jump-off at Spruce Meadows, it came down to speed at the end, sometimes the luck of the draw decides the winner in the end.”

Eric Lamaze now stands as the greater Prize Money winner in Spruce Meadows history. His past victories that have contributed to this new title include the 2011 Spruce Meadows $1 million CN International Grand Prix, the 2011 Spruce Meadows $200,000 Queen Elizabeth II Cup, the 2010 Spruce Meadows $200,000 Queen Elizabeth II Cup and the 2007 Spruce Meadows $1 million CN International Grand Prix.

Thursday’s win came only 24 hours after Lamaze topped Wednesday evening’s proceedings in the International Ring. Riding Powerplay, Lamaze rode double-clean to take the 1.55-metre ATB Financial Cup. The win also came only a week or so after his major Grand Prix victory in Rome and a couple weeks after his major CSIO5* Longines Grand Prix victory in La Baule, aboard the very same Powerplay.