Salgado making his dreams come true at Spruce Meadows
As a young Mexican rider, Juan Jose Zendejas Salgado has his pick of idols.
“There’s a lot,” the 24-year-old admitted. “I respect them all. They have done very good things, but one of my favourite riders is Jaime Azcarraga. He’s not from Earth. He’s a Martian. He’s had a very good career.”
Salgado displayed some otherworldly tactics of his own on Friday at the Spruce Meadows North American show jumping tournament, bettering a whole slate of talented youngsters. Aboard Tino La Chapelle, Salgado won the McNerney Family U25 Winning Round competition by posting the fastest time (46.94) in the second round.
“Amazing,” grinned the young man. “I’ve been dreaming this all my life. Every time I come to Spruce Meadows, it’s a dream to win something here and have your anthem playing. I’m very, very happy.”
The victory also gave Salgado the Spruce Meadows U25 championship — a series which runs all summer long. A Business Administration student at the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico, Zendejas is nothing if not grateful for his grey gelding.
“I got him last year, my horse of a lifetime,” he said of Tino La Chapelle. “I was not having the best week with him, because sometimes Spruce can be a little bit tough. Today I tried to give him a confident round, the first one, and then let him do his thing in the second round.
Second spot went to Japan’s Karen Polle and Little Lord 90, while American Alex Matz and Cashew CR took third.
For Salgado, this means an invite to the September Masters.
“That’s one of my other dreams, to come to the Masters,” he said. It was a day of victory for Mexico. Patricio Pasquel wasn’t waiting with bated breath to see if his jump-off time would hold up in the ATCO Connect, the first event in the International Ring.
“I was here (in the hitching ring) happy. I knew they would have to go really fast. ”
It was a massive class that took part in the jump-off, all of 26 horse and rider combos. Pasquel and his young stallion Tulum were the 19th tandem out and they negotiated the abbreviated course in a time of 32.17, shaving more than a second off the previous low set by Russia’s Vladimir Tuganov and Sinfonie 168, eventual third place finishers. Oregon’s Rich Fellers and HTH Crazy for Crown were second.
The Pepsi Challenge rounded out the main events in the International Ring and it was Canada’s Tiffany Foster and her nine-yearold mare Caipiranja who copped that win, defeating three others in the jump-off.
The highlight of the North American, the ATCO Queen Elizabeth II Cup grand prix, goes Saturday afternoon.