Canadian showjumper Eric Lamaze continued his impressive comeback this weekend winning a 2nd grand prix on the trot.
Eric managed to hold off Michael Whitaker by 0.02 seconds to win the €200,000 prize in Rome, Italy, with Zigali P S on Sunday (25 May).
Until his victory in La Baule last week, Eric had not won a 5* grand prix since the shock death of his Olympic partner Hickstead in 2011.
The 15-year-old stallion, who led Eric to individual gold at the 2008 Olympics, collapsed after jumping his round at the World Cup in Verona.
After the incident Eric took a year out of out from showjumping in 2012 but started to rebuild his string of showjumpers in 2013.
Last month Eric’s company Torrey Pines bought Ben Maher’s Olympic ride Tripple X III.
The horse was seen out competing with Tiffany Foster, who trains with Eric, earlier this month at Le Touquet (8-9 May) but it has not been confirmed who will be the horse’s partner at future competitions.
“The faith I had in these horses is paying off,” said Eric. “We are really clicking, everything is coming together between myself and the horses.
“I’ve spent time really getting to know them, and the moment has come now. Yes, I won these 2 events before with Hickstead, but to do it again now with 2 different horses really shows the depth of horses that we have.”
Eric will now head to the Global Champions Tour in Hamburg, Germany where he will aim to continue his winning streak.
For a full report from the Rome CSIO5* don’t miss this week’s magazine — out Thursday (29 May).
