French opens with a triple
Piggy French dominates with three wins, while a new approach involving taking the pressure off results in a win for another rider
EIGHT double clears from eight rides at Oasby, including a hat-trick of wins, was a clear indication that Piggy French and her team have been hard at work over the winter.
“It was great to be out and all the horses felt fantastic,” she said. “Oasby was a perfect first run as there was a bit of everything on the cross-country course, good lines and enough for horses at all levels to get them going.”
Her most convincing win came with Jennifer Saunders’ 10-yearold Cooley Monsoon in open intermediate (OI) section L. The pair added just 2.4 time-penalties to a dressage score of 20.2 to complete more than 17 penalties ahead of nearest rivals Michael Owen and Jims Pal.
“I honestly didn’t realise we’d won by that much,” she confessed afterwards. “I just rode what I
had underneath me.”
This was the son of Ramiro
B’s seventh win in 12 starts with Piggy, highlighting him as one to watch this season as the pair prepare to contest the horse’s first two-star at Tattersalls later this spring.
Piggy’s second win came in intermediate section H with Trevor Dickens’ home-bred eightyear-old mare, Graf Cavalier.
“She’s extremely elegant, scopey and athletic,” said Piggy, “but she definitely has her own jumping style and I’ve had to learn how to adapt to her. She’s lovely on the flat and although she’s not classical, she’s totally genuine and has a very good brain.”
Like stablemate Cooley Monsoon, Graf Cavalier is one to watch, having not yet been out of the top 10 in any of her runs since
joining Piggy’s yard in mid-2017. The rider’s third win was in novice section C with Emerald Jonny.
‘HE’S BETTER IN HIS MIND AND BODY’
IBBY MACPHERSON was ecstatic to win OI section K with her own Ballingowan Diamond, as it hopefully draws a line under what she described as a 2017 full of “nearly moments and silly mistakes”.
“We had a fantastic 2016 but I put way too much pressure on myself going into our first fourstar star at Burghley [where they ended up retiring]. I then rode over-protectively in 2017 and was overthinking things, always trying to be perfect, and it just didn’t work. I had some cross-country lessons with Chris Bartle and hunted over the winter [see box, right] and have learnt not to be so precious about things. As a result, Ballingowan Diamond has come out way better in his mind and body this season.”
Izzy Taylor finished behind Ibby with one of her five rides on Friday, Charlie Sands’ 2017 six-year-old world champion Monkeying Around.
“I’ve had him since he was four when he was sent to me to be sold,” said Izzy. “I liked what I saw and we have a great partnership now. I’m very excited about the way he came out of Le Lion, as the experience can blow their minds a bit and require a lot of repair work. He was slightly distracted here but that’s to be expected.”
Third place went to Paul Tapner with Counterparty.
Izzy went one better in OI section J, winning with Jeremy and Andrea Brereton and Linda Mars’ Springpower. The nineyear-old by Power Blade was originally a catch ride for Izzy last season when she deputised for an injured Jodie Amos, but the addition of Linda to the horse’s ownership has enabled her to keep him in the stable and aim for Bramham CCI3*.
Angus Smales piloted Diana Birch’s one-day specialist A
Bit Much into second place on 30.2, and they were the only combination in the intermediate sections to complete on their dressage score. Heidi Coy was third with David Ottewell’s Carrigsean Tigerseye.
Nineteen-year-old Isabel White, who rides full time for Judy Bradwell, won the final intermediate section with Quite Something, a home-bred gelding originally destined to be Isabel’s mother’s dressage horse until he had other ideas.
“He’s only seven but he loves his job and is very brave across
country,” Isabel explained. “He has a fabulous gallop so he just cruised round. We’ve spent the winter consolidating our flatwork and working on some of the more difficult movements, so I was really pleased with our dressage mark of 24.8.”
HEAVY RAIN LEADS TO ABANDONMENT
WITH the previous weekend’s fixtures decimated by the “Beast from the East”, Oasby was the site of many a fresh horse as
the majority enjoyed their first competitive outings of 2018. The ground on Thursday and Friday was nigh on perfect, an amazing feat achieved by Stuart Buntine and his team given that Siberian conditions had caused the country to virtually grind to a halt just days earlier.
This made the decision to have to abandon all Saturday and Sunday’s classes after heavy overnight rain on Friday all the more galling for everyone concerned.