Christine Bates and Adelaide Hill
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Since recovering from injury here whilst competing in the CCI4* two years ago, Christine Bates’ chestnut gelding Adelaide Hill has been doing a lot of pure dressage and show jumping which has certainly paid dividends so far, but Christine admitted to being a bit out of cross country practise today.
That may be the case but they still jumped clear around the CIC3* course with 12.8 time penalties to maintain their lead on a score of 55 but they have just two penalties up their sleeve for tomorrow’s show jumping and they have Shane Rose on Swiper coming up behind them in second place
“I nearly gave it away to Shane which would have made me really cranky!”
Christine Bates
Shane Rose and Swiper after a slight tack malfunction
In fact, it is amazing that Shane had the fastest time of the day considering his shenanigans on course on board Swiper with some pony club watch issues and tack malfunctions (listen to our full interview with Shane here)
But, despite all that, Shane and Swiper made a big jump from 10th after the dressage into second place thanks to a clear cross country ride with just 1.2 time penalties, finishing on a score of 57
Deon Stokes, second after the dressage has given Shane a bit of margin for error on the young Swiper tomorrow, finishing in third today on Crime Time (65) after adding 16.4 time penalties and is now in seventh place on Koyuna Levi (75.70)
Deon Stokes and Crime Time
This was a tough course to make the time but Andrew Cooper gave it a crack on the thoroughbred Lagoes Choice, his final ride of the day.
Andrew is currently in fourth place (65.40) in both the CIC3* and the CCI4*, with a few penalties in hand in this class over Megan Jones riding Kirby Park Invader who picked up 16.8 time penalties for fifth place (71.20)
(note that after this interview Megan's horse in the CCI4*, Kirby Park Impress was given 50 penalties for being outside the flag in the CCI4*, dropping them to 12th place)
Megan Jones and Kirby Park Invader
Victoria’s Callum Buczak had a great result on Matavia Cheval to be one of only three riders to jump clear with single digit time penalties (7.2) to move him up from 14th place after the dressage into sixth – no doubt a ride he will be celebrating tonight! Matavia Cheval has a reasonably good show jumping record so hopefully they will be celebrating again tomorrow on the drive back to Melbourne!
