June 15, 2025 
Disbelief.
That was what Vaclav Stanek was feeling in the moments following his repeat win of the week’s feature Grand Prix of the Spruce Meadows’ CSI5* National Tournament on Saturday.
When he awoke that morning, the Czech rider had just one grand prix win on his record. And it was earned nearly a year to the day prior. Contesting his second ever 1.60m class with Quintin, former ride of Irish Olympian Daniel Coyle, Stanek topped the 5* Duncan Ross Grand Prix at Spruce Meadows’ in June 2024.
He was disbelieving then too.
“I didn’t even expect to get a clear round, let alone win my first 5* event,” said Stanek at the time.
On Saturday, he did it again. Same horse. Same venue. Same tournament. Same feeling.
“The same disbelief because it was surely unexpected to do it the first time, but I didn’t really think that’s possible to do again the next year, so I’m really happy that it worked out today,” said the thrilled 29-year-old.
Aboard Ariel Grange’s Quintin, Stanek bested an eight-horse horse jump off, half Olympians, as the fastest of three clear rounds. And decisively. Their winning time of 42.7 seconds, was a second and half faster than runner up Mario Deslauriers (CAN) on his Paris Olympics mount Emerson (44.3). Sameh El Dahan (GBR) and Oscar-A finished third in 47.1.
A stable rider for Grange’s Lothlorien Stables, Stanek’s star power has risen dramatically in the two and half years since he joined the Canadian operation. He’s jumped from world ranking list obscurity (as in he wasn’t on it) to highest ranked Czech rider at no. 214.
And it’s only climbing higher in 2025.
Five and a half months into the year he’s already eclipsed his 2024 season by every Jumpr stat metric. He’s jumped to 5 podium finishes (vs 3 in 2024), earned a career second 5* GP win and collected over $200k USD in earnings (from $176,567 USD the year prior).
Vaclav Stanek czech’s out.
The Spruce Meadows summer series continues June 26–29 with the Pan American Tournament.
