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It was a three-peat for Ian Millar recently at the Tournament of Champions Horse Show.

The legendary Captain Canada - still at the top of his game at age 60 - captured both the John Deere Canada Cup Championship and first place in the $100,000 World Cup Qualifier.

This was the third consecutive year Millar has won the show jumping championship with the 12-year-old bay gelding InStyle, owned by Sue Grange of Caledon, but the first time he’s won both that title and the World Cup class at the Caledon Equestrian Park.

The class served as the third phase of the $175,000 John Deere Canada Cup Championship, with the first two phases held earlier in the week. Jill Henselwood, 44, of Oxford Mills, the individual gold medal winner at the Pan Am Games in July, was Millar’s closest rival for the championship, winning Thursday’s first phase, a speed class. But Millar fought back on Friday, taking first in the second phase, which tested power and technique.

In the final event, just five horses of 26 advanced to the jump-off, including Henselwood and Millar. Henselwood, mounted on Black Ice, took a daring chance with an impossibly tight turn between the second and third jumps and posted a fast time of 40.12 seconds, throwing down a formidable challenge.

Millar, who had the advantage of going after Henselwood, was able to strategize after seeing her round.

“It was an excellent jump-off and because of the formula (three phases), it really did come down to Jill and Black Ice and In Style and myself,” said a delighted Millar after the presentations. “She sure didn’t make it easy. You could either slow down and take that tight turn or you could gallop around the faster way very quickly.”

Millar opted to take the longer, faster route and as a result, stopped the clock at 39.25 seconds.

“It becomes horse-specific,” Millar observed. “It so happens that InStyle could slip around there at warp speed and catch the next jump off the flow. He is an experienced enough horse that he could do it either way, but it was such a tight turn, you’d lose all rhythm and forward flow.”

“In this type of jumping, you’ve just got to keep your forward flow,” he added.

The horse, who was Millar’s partner at the Pan Am Games, where the Canadian show jumping team won silver and secured a place for Canada in next year’s Beijing Olympic Games, now gets a welldeserved rest.

Millar plans to show him lightly at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in November, take another break before doing the winter circuit in Florida, then ramping up in March for the Olympic selection trials.

Millar has every intention to represent Canada for the ninth time at the Games, matching an all-time record for Olympic appearances, with InStyle as his equine partner.

“He’s got a brain, he knows his job very well, he’s got the heart of a lion,” said Millar. “He’s got power, he’s got technique . . . he’s got all the qualities you need for the job.”

And, as Millar continues to prove at an age when most show jumping riders have hung up their spurs, so does he.

The day wasn’t a great one for competitors from King.

Schomberg’s Eric Lamaze finished eighth in the field of 26 aboard Sadin, as they drew four jumping faults. His other entry of Lorrain Z had an even rougher time on the course, missing a couple of early jumps, and Lamaze voluntarily withdrew.

Lamaze has been enjoying a lot of great success lately, taking the winner’s share of the CN International at Spruce Meadows in Calgary earlier this month. As well, he turned in a team silver and individual bronze medal performance at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro. But his mount for those two stellar performances, Hickstead, was not at the tournament. Lamaze’s next outing with Hickstead will be in Europe, beginning a fall tour in October in Brussels.

Mac Cone of King City, who was part of the medalwinning contingent in Rio de Janeiro, also had two entries. He collected four faults on Ole, and eight riding Melinda.