Mcvean and Daffodil cap off amazing week

THE year is turning into special for Katie Mcvean.

Riding her bay mare Dunstan Daffodil, Mcvean won her fourth Olympic Cup at the 2012 New Zealand Horse of the Year Show in Hastings yesterday.

It was the third consecutive Showjumper of the Year title for the 25-yearold from Mystery Creek in Waikato, and topped off a superb show, in which she also won the Lady Rider of the Year, the Silver Fern Stakes and the five-and seven-year-old titles.

But she was quick to credit Daffodil with the heart-stopping victory in which she swept aside 24 other top

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hat-trick combinations Tasman.

Mcvean was the only one to go clear in the first round and though she rattled a couple of jumps in the second round, she went clear again to head home Australian Brook Dobbin on Advisor.

‘‘She just tried her little heart out,’’ Mcvean said of 11-year-old Daffodil. The horse is a half-sister to superstar Dunstan Delphi, on which Mcvean won the Olympic Cup in 2010 before selling her overseas last year.

‘‘It sucks to have a sister like Delphi – this is Daffodil’s time to shine. It’s been the most amazing week, the best ever.’’

Mcvean

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Daffodil,

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with Dunstan Zimoreana G, will head to Australia in just over a week to compete at the Sydney Royal Show and a couple of World Cup shows.

Mcvean also scored an emotional victory on Dunstan Kiwi Iron Mark in the Seven-year-old of the Year class.

Iron Mark was owned by Melanie Purcell, who died of cancer in 2011, aged just 24.

Mcvean rode the horse for Purcell’s mother, June Berrington.

Annabel Wigley won the Eventer of the Year title riding NRM Frog Rock with a beautifully ridden showjumping round to finish 6.4 points ahead of Te Kauwhata’s Donna Smith on Henton Executive.