Great Britain’s Team Audevard take fourth place in the BMO Nations Cup at the Spruce Meadows Masters in Calgary
Monday 14 September 2026
Great Britain’s Team Audevard led the way at the halfway stage as defending champions in the prestigious BMO Nations Cup at the Spruce Meadows Masters in Canada, but a turn of fortunes in the second round dropped the team to fourth, just out of the podium places.
“The team jumped so well over a difficult course in round one, they were in good spirits to finish on top in round one – but we knew we would have to keep it up and it was a day of mixed fortunes,” said Chef d’Equipe Di Lampard.
Course-designer Leopoldo Palacios has a reputation for setting challenging courses and this was no exception. The technical track tested both horse and rider of the nine nations forward, with the course demanding precision, careful strategy and consistency throughout, reducing the nine original teams to the best six for round two.
“It was a difficult course, we knew that when we walked it,” said Di.
The scores were packed tightly at the top, with Britain taking a narrow lead of just two faults. Jess Mendoza was first out for the team, coming home on just four faults with In The Air, taking only one brick out of the early ‘White Cliffs of Dover’ wall but made no further mistake.
“It was an expensive brick, but Jess did a great job as first one out,” said Di.
Jack Whitaker countered by leaving every fence intact = the first to do so in the competition so far – but he picked up two frustrating time faults on the big-jumping Jack JL.
Tim Gredley on Medoc De Toxandria and anchor Ben Maher with Catelly were foot-perfect and finished within the time to add two clear rounds to the score. Discarding the four faults, it put Britain at the top on two faults. Nonetheless, Germany were hot on their heels on four with Ireland a fence behind on eight faults – round two promised to be a battle and every rail mattered.
It wasn’t to be. Jess fell foul of the fences either side of the open water on a difficult dog-leg line with In The Air, tapping out the front rail of the preceding oxer and the Dutch bicycle vertical following the water. Jack lowered the front rail of the oxer before the combination for four faults and Tim returned an uncharacteristic 12 faults on Medoc De Toxandria.
The hopes of a win were fading as Germany came back with incredibly strong rounds to post a zero score in round two, while Ireland added nine to their first round eight faults to finish on a total of 17.
It was down to Ben and Catelly to decide Britain’s fortunes but unexpectedly, the pair were eliminated, leaving Britain adding 24 faults to their score for a total of 26, dropping them to fourth. Ireland finished second with Belgium in third on 21.
“Catelly just bulged out towards the collecting ring on the approach to the first fence, a triple bar, missed his stride and that was it,” explained Di. “A lot of the teams had upside down results; round two just didn’t go our way, there were small rider errors and on this course, there was no room for errors, we were happy with fourth place.”
BMO Nations Cup, Spruce Meadows Masters, Calgary, Canada – 12 September 2026
1st Germany – 4
2nd Ireland – 17
3rd Belgium – 21
4th Great Britain – 26
Jess Mendoza & In The Air – 5/8
Jack Whitaker & Jack JL – 2/4
Tim Gredley & Medoc De Toxandria – 0/12
Ben Maher & Catelly – 0/E
