It's always fascinating to look at an event from a numbers viewpoint and thanks once again to Chris Kirby, we can take a look at the stats for the CCI4* and the breakdown of the Track to the Top Ten at the 2018 Mitsubishi Motors Australian International 3 Day Event in Adelaide
Check out how each rider fared in each phase - who made the big jumps (metaphorically as well as literally) up the leader board and when they happened plus compare the numbers to 2017
Everyone was saying that the CCI4* cross country track in Adelaide was the toughest they had seen for years and indeed it had huge influence on the eventual outcome of the results (listen to what 4* riders and coaches Jock Paget and Prue Barrett said about the course here )
The leaders after dressage, Katie Taliana and Trevalgar II, dropped out of contention as one of the eight eliminated riders and for a while, before 50 penalties were removed from the scores of Hazel Shannon and Amanda Pottinger, there was an amazing reversal of fortunes for Emily Gray and Jocular Vision, moving from last place after the dressage to first after the cross country phase
After the Ground Jury review, Emily moved down to third place and Sonja Johnson was in fourth with a lot of breathing room (over 15 penalties) between the first two and third/fourth after a day which saw half of the competitors fail to complete, only three riders complete without jumping penalties and no-one making the time allowed
The show jumping phase was also hugely influential with John Vallance’s big track and the allocated time of 81 seconds proving tricky. No-one jumped clear and only three riders made the time, including the eventual winner Hazel Shannon and Willinga Park Clifford who luckily is ‘a horse that likes to jump fast!’ (watch our interview with Hazel here)
And of course it's always fascinating to check out how this compares to the stats for Luhmuhlen, Kentucky, Badminton and Burghley!
