As last year’s winner Craig Barrett said in our recent interview “Adelaide is now such a big event, it is the focus point for everybody”
Craig and his homebred mare Sandhills Brillaire are heading there once again and the year seems to have just whizzed by since they took the title in November 2012. It has been a year of highs and lows throughout the FEI HSBC Classics Series with the Kiwis triumphant throughout but the shock findings from swabs at Burghley made for a strange end to the 2012/13 season.
Although the last 4* of the year, the event in Adelaide is actually the second leg of the 2013/14 FEI Classics season, with Les Etoiles de Pau having kicked it all off in France in October. Unfortunately this is the last time that HSBC will sponsor the event and, although the FEI have taken up the mantle whilst they look for a new Series sponsor, the prize pot for the current FEI Series has decreased significantly with the 2014 winner taking US$40,000. However HSBC are still sponsoring the 4* class here in Adelaide meaning that the top riders get a chance to share in the $120,000 prize pot and the winner takes home $35,000.
It isn’t just the prize money however which makes the Australian International 3 Day Event the focus of the year for riders in this part of the world – it is chance for the riders based in the southern hemisphere to prove themselves at the very top level of the sport. For once, all the eyes of the eventing world are focussed on Australia and Adelaide doesn’t disappoint.
Elizabeth Lowery and KL Kismet gallop across one of the roads between parklands
The event is unique with its parkland setting in the middle of an attractive city. The horses gallop across temporarily closed roads and through public parks, giving it an atmosphere found nowhere else in the world of eventing. It isn’t Badminton or Burghley with their great houses, it isn’t the purpose built surrounds of Kentucky, this is Adelaide and it is special. The nearby restaurants and bars offer all the night life you want , although the event itself offers plenty, while wineries and the sea are just a stone’s throw away
The weather is usually warm and sometimes just plain hot, although this year the forecast is for a few days of pleasantly sunny days in the low 20’s.This gives the event a holiday feel and even the officials tend to don their summer gear for a change.
Christian Landolt, one of the 2012 Ground Jury members, donned his shorts for the event
This year the 4* Ground Jury consists of Germany’s Ernst Topp, New Zealand’s Anne Tylee and Australia’s Vicky Brydon with Alec Lachore the Technical Delegate, Wayne Copping the cross country course designer and John Vallance the show jumping course designer.
The HSBC Adelaide CCI4* competitors read like a Who’s Who of Australian eventing as you would expect with Olympians galore. Gold medallist Stuart Tinney will be competing two horses – the big grey Pluto Mio owned by John and Jane Pittard (who also own Stuart’s CCI2* ride, Annapurna, a half-sister to Pluto) and his and his wife’s own chestnut gelding Sydney, while Western Australia’s Sonja Johnson brings the CCI3* runner-up at the Melbourne International 3 Day Event, Belfast Mojito, and Parkiarrup Illicit Liaison across the Nullarbor.
Stuart Tinney and Pluto Mio are on form
The winners at Melbourne, Katja Weimann and BP Flamboyant are also making their bid for team selection for next year’s Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games as, make no doubt about it, the results here will be of interest to the Australian team selectors. This makes it all the more disappointing for local heroes Wendy Schaeffer and Megan Jones who have both scratched from the 4* due to recent injuries.
For Rebel Morrow, the highest placed Australian event rider at the Athens Olympics, this is her first 4* event since 2005 and she aims to make the most of it riding her fiery mare Hillgrove Enviable. Another Olympic medallist Shane Rose has returned after a disappointing season in the UK but he has his top horse Taurus back in contention here as well as a fairly recent ride for him, CP Qualified, a horse who came to Shane as he didn’t like the kangaroos on Shane’s mother-in-law’s property. The once dressage horse has been going really well considering how little time Shane has had with him in the past few months and Shane is one of the most competitive riders around who will be looking to win.
Shane Rose and CP Qualified winning the CIC3* at Goulburn
Last year’s CCI2* winner Wilhelm Enzinger should have been competing TS Jamaimo in the 4* this year but a bad fall at Colac Horse Trials this weekend will rule him out. However fellow Victorian Chris Height will be making the trip and riding Blackall Park Dartagnan, a little horse with a big jump, which could also be an apt description for the pocket rocket Algebra ridden by Natalie Blundell who were second in the 4* here last year. Another three horses in the sub-16hh bracket are Isabel English’s grey Feldale Mouse, Jessica Manson’s Legal Star and Donna Smith’s Balmoral Tangalooma.
Western Australia's Jessica Manson and her 15.3hh Australian Stock Horse X Legal Star will be back again
Donna and Monica Oakley with her 16.3hh bay thoroughbred gelding Fontain are both making the trip from New Zealand to have a crack at the southern hemisphere’s only 4*. With fellow New Zealanders having been so successful at 4* level this year, maybe they think it is their turn to shine (Andrew Nicholson is apparently in New Zealand at the moment – let’s just be glad he didn’t get a catch ride here to try and add another notch to his belt). Donna and Monica were third and fifth in the CIC3* at Kihikihi earlier in the year and Monica is lucky to have Fontain competing at this level after a bad paddock accident last year where he de-gloved his entire back leg.
Monica Oakley and the NZ thoroughbred Fontain are tripping across the Tasman
“Evening all” could be the catch phrase for Tim Ellis and Seumas Marwood, as current and past police officers. Tim from Western Australia will be riding Ellison Park Benson while Seumas is riding Wild Oats by Contango II, a mare well-known for her jumping ability who placed third in the CCI3* at Melbourne this year.
The only other pure warmblood this year is another mare, Kinnordy Gambia, owned by Kevin McNab and Charlotte Price and ridden by Charlotte. Charlotte, who hails from the UK and manages Kelecyn Equestrian in Queensland, is also riding Dustman in the CCI2*.
Seumas Marwood will be riding Wild Oats
Christine Bates will be looking to finish 2013 on a high after what has been not a good year for her and her family. The latest injury was to Christine’s finger, putting her out of action in the lead up to Adelaide but she has recently taken the ride back on her own (aptly named) Adelaide Hill and rumour has it they will come out smoking in the dressage.
Young riders Tarryn Proctor, Cassandra Webb and Soigne Jackson have all achieved a massive goal just by riding here at 4* level but the youngest of them all is first timer 17 year old Madison Simpson from Queensland riding a horse only two years younger than her, Major James. Another rider to have taken her horse from grass roots level through to 4* is Keira Byrnes, back with her black thoroughbred gelding Fox Hill, having placed in fifth spot here last year.
26 combinations will present for the first horse inspection (touch wood as you never can tell with horses) on Wednesday afternoon and then we are off and running. In addition there is of course the Horseland CCI2* class also taking place with over 60 riders plus Masterclasses, Cross Country Course Walks with the Stars, Twilight Polo and Show Jumping, the Eventers Party and so much more. Stay tuned……………..
Our full 4* Member coverage of the Australian International 3 Day Event starts on Wednesday 13th November with daily photo galleries by Libby Law, our reports, interviews and videos each day directly from the event.
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