Blair Castle, Keysoe, Firle Place and highlights
An Australian finishes his season in Britain in fine style, while new stars come to the fore in the other classes as a teenager and a CCI3* debutante win
SHANE ROSE came to Blair thinking he could win all three classes he’d entered. While it wasn’t to be in the CIC3* when his temporary ride Happy Times wasn’t on his best form, the Australian cracked an impressive double when he took both the Event Rider Masters (ERM) and the CCI2*.
His ERM winner Virgil II moved up from ninth after dressage with a double clear and the second-fastest cross-country round, particularly impressive as such soft ground is not what he is used to in Australia.
“He’s like me — obnoxious, but when you put your thumb down he does as he’s told,” joked Shane.
The 12-year-old, who belongs to his rider and Michelle Hasibar, now flies home to Australia and will be prepared for next year’s World Equestrian Games there.
Shane was the first Australian to win an ERM leg and Chris Burton made it a one-two for Down Under riders with the fastest cross-country round (two seconds over the time) on the syndicate-owned Graf Liberty.
“He’s a machine and has so much power across country,” said Chris. “He makes my job easy.”
Angela Hislop’s Cooley Master Class scored his second third place of this 2017 series under Oliver Townend.
For once, a rider who wasn’t on the podium was as feted as the top three when Gemma Tattersall secured the series title before the finale at Blenheim by taking fourth on Pamero 4.
When Mark Todd withdrew Kiltubrid Rhapsody after three showjumps down, the series could only go to the wire at Blenheim if Sarah Cohen finished in the top five and beat Gemma. But she and Treason finished seventh.
This was a win for the home
team as Gemma is based at ERM chief executive Chris Stone’s yard. She has staged a targeted campaign to win this, riding four different horses (see box, p84).
Her ride of just over three months, Pamero 4, “gave his best in all three phases” here.
“Laura Collett has produced him beautifully and he’s such a generous personality,” she said.
Clive Smith’s 10-year-old is still a big weak horse — not helped by the fact he is “not a great eater” — and there is more to come as he strengthens and develops.
Franky Reid-Warrilow went into cross-country as the leader, but the neat little Dolley Whisper could not match the leaders’ speed and finished sixth.
ONE-TWO FOR MARES
EXCEPT in the CCI3*, the leader of every class changed after every phase and Shane moved up from sixth after dressage to land the CCI2*.
Winning horse Gurtera Cher, a 12-year-old chestnut mare belonging to Kim Mercer, Rod and Sue Bennett, is usually ridden by Sam Griffiths, who has been on the sidelines with a cracked neck since mid-May. She shares her sire Touchdown with Sam’s top horse, the 2014 Badminton winner Paulank Brockagh, and Shane predicted she will be just as good.
‘He has a massive ego and loves himself. We wind each other up, but we got on from the start’
HARRIET WRIGHT ON HER CIC3* WINNER NGONG HILLS
Emily King took second on Jane del Missier’s Walitze F Vejgard, who has had an incredible run of success this summer.
“Ever since she wasn’t picked for the young rider squad, she’s been proving she should have been,” said Emily.
The mare has also had four embryo transfer foals this year, two by Jaguar Mail and two by Royaldik, the last of whom was born on Blair Sunday.
Oliver Townend claimed third on Tregilder, a promising seven-year-old who belongs to Stephen and Victoria Hazeldine and the Mitchell Fox Group, and was bred by Preci-Spark, by Royal Concorde out of a Hand In Glove mare.
Every CCI2* horse completed the cross-country, but the leading three after dressage all dropped out of the top 10 due to cross-country time-faults. Emily’s boyfriend Sam Ecroyd led after the first phase on Jane del Missier’s Cooley Currency, whom he has taken on until he’s sold as he is too strong for Emily. The pair cruised round for 20.4 time-faults as the horse is aimed at Blenheim.
“He’s such a talented horse, but it was either go on steroids or sell him to a man,” said Emily.
SIMPLY THE BEST
A RIDER who only turned professional last year won on her first attempt a CCI3*. Hazel Towers, 30, evented as an amateur until April last year, when she gave up her job as a brand manager.
“I’m glad I left it so long before I took the plunge and now all the hard work has paid off,” said the 30-year-old from
North Yorkshire.
Fourth after dressage, Hazel and her 10-year-old mare Simply Smart had a dicey ride through the first water, but grew in confidence. The rider tackled the final phase as if it was a jump-off, clicking to the mare at each fence, and their single pole down was good enough as no one showjumped clear.
Hazel bought the mare, by Major Gold, as an unbroken fouryear-old for less than £2,000.
“We call her ‘The Nightmare’ at home. She hates everyone and other horses, but she loves me,” she said.
Louise Skelton, victor in this class in 2005 on Partly Pickled, took second with Alli Haynes’ Balladeer Miller Man, while last year’s CCI2* winners, Caroline Clarke and the neat jumper Touch CROSS-COUNTRY coursedesigner Alec Lochore (above) sent the riders on a similar route to the 2015 European Championships this time, having largely reversed the track last year.
The fact this route requires horses to climb steeply, before dropping down, then climb again — compared to a more consistent rise on last year’s track — made this quite a test, although Alec was very conscious of horses catching their breath at the top of hills when siting fences.
The terrain was accentuated by rain earlier in the week leaving the ground holding in places. The fastest CCI3* horse — Balladeer Miller Man — was 47 seconds over the optimum time, while last year one beat the clock and two others were within 22 seconds of it.
“There’s a temptation to soften the CCI3* track with only 12 in it to have more jumping on Sunday, but you absolutely shouldn’t do that because if horses are going to Badminton or Burghley after Blair, I want them to be ready,” said Alec.
The designer said he was generally happy with how all the courses rode and particularly with the low number of horse falls.
Matt Heath said he felt
Alec “got the tracks right”, while acknowledging this route on soft ground was “quite punishing”. But Oliver Townend commented that 43% of onestar horses having jumping problems was “not good”.
“I think they need to look at the way they run it in terms of terrain,” he said.
The one-star proved more difficult than Alec expected, which he put down to the length of the track (the maximum nine minutes), the fact these horses had the tackiest ground and that some were not fit enough.
Alec acknowledged that the track gives a slightly easier trip the other way round and said there are now “lots of routes available” so he will continue to mix up which way riders go.
Too Much, returned to take third.
Blair’s CCI3* is a sadly small affair and just 12 started, of which seven finished the cross-country.
But there were good horses and riders competing, including Mark Todd on OBOS Colombus — who fell into the ditch at the Malcolm Group Forth Bridge (fence 19abc) — and Kirsty Johnston’s dressage leader WTTL Opposition Sky Law, who came to grief at the Clark Thomson Insurance Brokers Owl Hole (fence 26).
THE WRIGHT FORMULA
A TEENAGER beat five Olympians to win the CIC3* when Harriet Wright, 18, piloted her own 12-year-old Fleetwater Opposition son Ngong Hills to victory. He was produced to threestar by Nicola Wilson, but has mostly competed at one-star since joining Harriet last year.
“I planned to do my first threestar here, but I spoke to Nicola and she said it is big and uphill, so I went to Hartpury,” said Harriet. “I got so nervous in the dressage there that my test was really tense, so here I pretended I was having a lesson with my trainer Richard Davison.”
The result was a 13.9-penalty improvement for third after dressage, which, coupled with the fastest cross-country round (16.8 time-faults), was a winning formula.
Derbyshire-based Harriet rides full-time after dropping out of school during her A levels.
“He has a massive ego and loves himself,” said Harriet.
“We wind each other up, but he’s a lot like my pony so we got on from the start.”
A shorter dressage warm-up of just 20 minutes, perfected with trainer Ian Woodhead, was key to Matt Heath’s leading test (43) on Hazel Livesey’s Cooley Lord Lux. The pair added 27.6 time-faults across country to finish second.
“A flat track and top of the ground would be ideal for him and he only came for a canter round, but as he was well placed I discussed it with Hazel and we decided I’d set out positive and keep going if he was going well,” said Matt.
Olivia Wilmot, who had her second child Hunter just 16 weeks before Blair, took third with her four-star campaigner Cool Dancer.
“Blair hasn’t been my lucky
event, but with when the events fell in the calendar, I needed to come here,” said Olivia, who heads to Ballindenisk in the hopes of boosting 16-year-old Cool Dancer’s FEI points tally ready for the Badminton ballot next year.
SCOTTISH VICTORY
EMILY PARKER scored for Scotland when her dressage-score finish moved her up to win the 106-starter CCI*. She started riding Highly Delighted this year as owner David Mactaggart’s daughter, Tiffany, who produced him, has gone travelling.
“He’s called Peter at home — Perfect Peter,” she said. “I hoped he’d go double clear as he’s been going well all season, but you don’t know how they’ll cope with the ground and it being a three-day.”
Joint dressage leader Elisabeth Halliday-Sharp and Gorsehill Cooley, who has recovered from breaking a hind pedal bone last June, took the runner-up spot, relegated with 4.4 time-faults across country.
“I needed to get him fitter — I wasn’t prepared for a nineminute cross-country in trudging mud,” said Elisabeth.
Brazil’s Carlos Parro’s remark that showjumping is the weakest phase for cross-country leader
Sir Digby proved prophetic when he had fence three down and dropped to third.