Indio, CA - January 27, 2006 - The Canadians enjoyed a break from the sub-zero northern temperatures as they heated up the competition during the summer-like January afternoon at HITS Desert Horse Park. John Pearce, of Stouffville, Ontario, popped the cork and took a victory lap aboard his long-time mount, Champagne, after winning the season's opening $30,000 Ariat Grand Prix Championship. Jill Henselwood, of Oxford Mills, Ontario, iced Canada's cake aboard her mount, Black Ice, finishing less than one second behind Pearce in the jump-off.

Pearce and his 13-year-old Holsteiner gelding have entertained equestrian enthusiasts and proved their ability in the ring for more than 4 years including some 25 Grand Prix wins and a position on the Canadian Equestrian Team. As his sole rider, Pearce seems to share a quiet confidence and genuine communication with Champagne in the ring and the pair kicked off this season in signature form with sound poise and precision maneuvering.

"It definitely felt good for the first Grand Prix of the circuit," said Pearce. "There was no real pressure because I just wanted to see where my horses were at. They've had a few months off and sometimes it takes a little bit for them to get back in the groove. But it's always great when they just come right out of the gate like that."

Especially after making the 60-hour trek from Ontario to Indio. Returning to Indio this year, Pearce explained that venturing from Ontario's freezing temperatures to a 75-degree California "winter" without a reasonable acclimatization period, places a great deal of physical stress on horses. For this reason, Pearce embarked on the journey a month early to allow Champagne and his other mounts ample time to adapt to warm weather and humidity change.

"I definitely feel like there is an advantage to being here a month early and getting 'climatized' before competing," said Pearce. "And it was a great course for the first day-fair and not to long," Pearce continued.

He also took advantage to enter three horses in the class, which afforded more opportunity to solve the course. "I did have a trouble on [the fourth fence, triple combination] with my young horse, Archie Bunker, but I made sure I didn't make that same mistake twice."

Designer, William "Buddy" Brown, created a formidable test that sent the first 15 horse and rider combinations back to their stables with faults on the board before Kristen Coe and Conejo finally cracked the code. After her clear round, the floodgates opened, and 6 more riders posted faultless scores.

Brown said of his course design, "Usually for a Grand Prix I shoot for 6 to 8 clean. I hit it with 7 this time, so overall I was happy."

Henselwood was fourth to go clean aboard her 11-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding, Black Ice, preceding Pearce in the order of go. She remarked on the course's initially challenging questions: "For awhile it was looking like nobody was actually going to answer the questions of the course. The riders were trying to figure out the pieces," said Henselwood. "Once it was analyzed, all of the sudden there were clean rounds, one after the other."

During the jump-off, Henselwood and Black Ice flawlessly navigated the fences in 40.77 seconds, but lost 1 second to Pearce and Champagne's 39.78-second finish.

"[Black Ice] was so eager to come ahead, he was still plunging forward and had a little too much momentum into the turn on the last jump," said Henselwood. "But I think he'll start to think ahead in the jump-offs with more practice. That's the mission for this tour; to get him faster and faster and doing those turns."

Henselwood remains confident that this year will continue Black Ice's winning campaign he began last year at the Pennsylvania National (Harrisburg, PA), Washington International (Washington, DC) and Royal Winter Fair (Ontario, Canada) horseshows. "Every time the gate opens and there is big prize money, Black Ice will attend. He's my lead horse on this tour."

But beyond the questions of this course's stood the undeniable presence of crowd favorites, Richard Spooner and his renowned grey mount, Robinson. "Robinson, by far, was the biggest threat of the group because he's so experienced and is an extremely fast horse," said Pearce. "The game's never over until Robinson is done."

Henselwood said of competing against Robinson and Champagne, "I just thought I should do what I can with my own horse because he doesn't have quite as much experience being extremely fast like Robinson and Champagne."

Spooner and Robinson glided through round one with signature serenity and style as expected. The duo took to the second round with a hardy gallop worthy of another blazing victory, but despite finishing with a top time of 38.12 seconds, the clap of a hoof on wood put the pair out of contention at the second to last jump. "I pushed too hard," said Spooner. "I should have added one more stride; but you win some, you lose some."

Pearce, Henselwood, Spooner and many other Grand Prix riders will compete for over $1,000,000 in total prize money throughout the 6-week span of the HITS Indio Desert Circuit.

Official Results: $30,000 Ariat Grand Prix, HITS Indio Desert Circuit I - January 27, 2006

2 - Black Ice- Stacie Ryan- Jill Henselwood - 0-0/40.77

3 - Syndication- Debbie Burrow- Dick Carvin - 0-0/41.33

4 - Oxford- Elizabeth Easton- Elizabeth Easton - 0-0/44.52

5 - Plesant- Grey Wolf Farm LLC- Peter Pletcher - 0-0/46.00

6 - Robinson- Half Moon Bay Investment Group- Richard Spooner - 0-4/38.78

7 - Conejo- Equine Trading Company, Inc- Kristen Coe - 0-8/45.86

8 - Ezrah- S&B LLC Corp- Richard Spooner - 4 - 72.00

9 - Riva 49- Buckeye Creek Farms Inc- Jill Humphrey - 4 - 75.54

10 - Nicole- Mark Leyton- Jill Henselwood - 4

11 - Punker- John Endicott- Helen McNaught - 4

12 - Tedechine Sept- David M. Robinson- Eddie Macken - 4

PhelpsSports.com will cover these major upcoming events from Indio:

$30,000 Ariat Grand Prix - Every Friday, 1:00 p.m.

$50,000 EMO Grand Prix - Sunday January 29, 1:00 p.m.

$75,000 HITS Grand Prix - Sunday February 5, 1:00 p.m.

$75,000 Bayer Grand Prix - Sunday February 12, 1:00 p.m.

$75,000 Footings Unlimited Grand Prix - Sunday February 26, 1:00 p.m.

$75,000 Surpass Grand Prix - Sunday March 5, 1:00 p.m.

$150,000 Grand Prix of the Desert - Sunday March 12, 1:00 p.m.

Josh Walker anchors the coverage of California and the West Coast for PhelpsSports.com. Look for the debut of this new website in late August. PhelpsSports.com is a new and highly innovative equestrian sports website offering equestrians and fans of equestrian sports from around the world a single web address for the latest breaking news of the Hunter, Jumper, Dressage, Eventing and other High Performance disciplines. The website will include up to the minute audio reports, live video interviews and features from around the globe, photography, and the creative writing and reporting of some of the finest equestrian journalists in the world.