Richard Spooner rides clear for 3rd straight derby win at Spruce Meadows

American Richard Spooner had an incredibly rare clear round in the CNOOC Nexen Cup derby to secure victory at Spruce Meadows on Sunday afternoon. 

The veteran equestrian won the challenging 1.50-metre event for the third consecutive time aboard 19-year-old gelding Cristallo with a time of 163.72 seconds on the final day of the week's competition. 

Mexico's Luis Alejandro Plascencia was second with eight faults in 155.69, while Canadian Chris Surbey and Carnaval came in third with an eight-fault time of 160.14. 

"I was lucky to have had a really good week and today was just super," Surbey said. "Carnaval was fantastic. When I was walking up to the in-gate Richard was jumping clear so that certainly put the pressure on. Jumping clear is a very hard thing to do in the Derby."

The competition had 19 obstacles spread across 1,100 metres and included the Bank measuring five metres in length, a double of liver pools, three-metre open water, table top, dry ditch and devils dyke with three elements set at 1.45 metres.

Spooner and Cristallo joined former Canadian Olympic silver medallist Ian Millar (Big Ben) and American Olympic gold medallist Beezie Madden (Judgement) as the only horse/rider combinations to win the event three consecutive years. Spooner credited his horse as they finished the course as the only duo with zero faults.

"He fears nothing, he is incredibly brave and he just kind of drags me around the whole course," Spooner said. "I don't know if you can tell but I'm just saying 'whoa', asking him to slow down."

Ward edges Coyle in ATCO Classic

Earlier in the day, American McLain Ward edged Ireland's Daniel Coyle by one one-hundredth of a second to claim victory in the ATCO Classic.

Ward, ranked second in the world, rode the 1.45-metre course clear with Tina La Boheme in 70.610 seconds.

Coyle collected two clear rounds with two different mounts to finish second and third but was unable to beat Ward's pace. With Simba de la Roque, Coyle had a time of 70.620 to clinch the runner-up position. He finished third with Cita in 70.950.