ST.
LAZARE, Que.- Winning the 35th St. Lazare Grand Prix equestrian horse jumping event Saturday was especially sweet for Angela Covert-Lawrence. It was like swallowing three cubes of sugar – with a cherry on the top. She did it at her own ranch, the Eastwood Equine Inc. property, beat one of Canada’s best-known riders, Ian Millar, the nine-time Olympian and silver medallist at the Beijing Olympics, and she won the top prize of $8,500. And, coincidentally, it came the day after her 33rd birthday. The money won’t even have to leave the account of Eastwood Equine because she and her husband, Mike Lawrence, who bought the farm five years ago, put up the $25,000 purse shared among the top riders this year. Riding Utan, an eight-year-old Dutch warmblood purchased a year ago, Covert- Lawrence went through the first round of 13 obstacles for a total of 16 efforts without a jumping fault – one of five of the 23 starters to do so, which qualified them for the jump-off. She then followed Millar, of Perth, Ont., who cleared all obstacles in the second round, setting a daunting challenge for the other riders.
Seeing Ian go before me showed that he was very cautious. So I stepped on it a little more than he did,” said Covert-Lawrence, who finished the round without a fault in 38.32 seconds to Millar aboard Stedel’s LeRoy with a perfect round in the time of 41.37 seconds.