Ian Millar takes Canada Cup again

King's Eric Lamaze guides Narcotique de Muze over one of the final jumps Sunday in Phase 3 of the Canada Cup Championship. He finished second on his other mount, Hickstead. Photo by Alan Liczyk

It rained on 'Captain Canada's parade Sunday, but Ian Millar still emerged as the John Deere Canada Cup champion at the Tournament of Champions horse show in Palgrave.

Though a single fallen rail during $100,000 World Cup Qualifier and the third phase of the John Deere Canada Cup Championship ended Millar's quest to win all three phases of the event, he still accumulated enough points over three days to win the Cup title.

Laurie Bucci, 35, of Mont St. Hilaire, Quebec won Sunday's class, held in sloppy conditions, often during driving rain. Bucci was one of only three riders out of 22 to cleanly jump the course in the first round. Though both Courtney Vince of Toronto) and King's Eric Lamaze also went clean in the jump-off, Bucci, the final rider, galloped boldly through the mud to take victory at 52.79 seconds aboard her nineyear old Holsteiner gelding, Quidam's Ramiro. She was a little more than three seconds better than Lamaze's time, aboard Hickstead.

"The footing wasn't the best, but my horse handled it well," said Bucci. "He's a very, very brave horse and I had every confidence he'd be okay with it. I had more trouble staying in the saddle because the rain made it slippery."

Meanwhile, Millar said his horse, In Style, his winning mount in both Thursday's $25,000 John Deere Canada Cup Speed Class and Friday's $50,000 John Deere Canada Cup Jumper Classic, was initially put off by the conditions. The skies opened just as Millar and In Style entered the ring.

"InStyle is much like Thoroughbred racehorses, sensitive, sensitive, and some of them don't like getting dirt splashed onto their bellies. The mud was going everywhere, and he was a little distracted at first," said Millar. "He knocked down a rail at the second fence, which is unusual for him, when he's been so consistent in this competition. But after that, he got his mind on the job."

In the original field of 32 horses, 10 scratched before the class.

Millar was competing with a broken hand, suffered two weeks ago while he was riding at the Master's Tournament at Spruce Meadows, Alberta, where he and InStyle were members of the Canadian Equestrian Team that won the prestigious Nations' Cup.

This is the second consecutive year Millar and InStyle have won the John Deere Canada Cup Championship at the Tournament of Champions.

"Next year, we'll be going for the hat trick," said Millar.