Sitting right on the border of NSW and Victoria the Albury Wodonga International one day event attracts riders from both States and Secretary, Angela Ramsay, is delighted with the number of entries to this year's event. Names in the international classes include Shane Rose, Stuart Tinney, Craig Barrett (pictured above at the recent Scone event) and Emma Mason to name just a few.
“I think we have around 32 in the 3*, which is the biggest field we have had since I have been involved with the event so we are very happy about that. We also have around 24 in the CIC2*, 36 in the CIC1* and the lower level classes are as full as we would like them. As the Albury Equestrian Centre only has the capacity for around 300 horses we run as big as we can with everything taken into consideration.”
Course designer, Michael Creber, continues his association with Albury and together with course builder, Craig Gordon, and various committee members the course has recently undergone several changes.
“We are using the mound beside the water jump, that spectators used to stand on, as part of the course this year – although not in all the classes,” explained Angela. “By doing this we are moving away from Albury being such a flat course. We have done other earth works around that area, some of which were only completed last night and obviously those new earth works areas won't be used this year but will certainly add to the track in years to come. We wanted to increase the opportunity for riders to ride closer to the polo cross grounds and the crowds and I think we have succeeded in doing that. Using money from the footing fund of Eventing NSW and other money we have done some ground improvement around the water jump so the take off and landing areas are much better than they have been in the past.”
Albury have taken advantage of the ‘footing fund’ (the brain child of Shane Rose pictured above at Scone) since it began a few years ago and have put a huge effort into improving the whole track through the use of sand and compost. Because the ground structure itself has been improved it should be able to tolerate a wider range of weather conditions and is something that should continue to improve in years to come.
With much of Australia suffering from recent floods I expected to hear that Albury was going to be very wet, but Angela informed me that wasn’t the case. “We had a huge amount of rain a few weeks ago but in the last week or so we haven’t had any meaningful rain so the course is very green and the going really good. The forecast for this weekend is possible showers but nothing too much is expected so everything should be just about perfect.”
On Saturday night the dressage leaders in the three international classes will each receive $100 from major sponsor WHK Business and Financial Advisers. “As there is a lot going happening on Saturday night with the high jump competition and the spit roast dinner we felt that presenting the dressage leaders with a prize was a way of getting our sponsors presence out to more people,” explains Angela. “Last year WHK, who are keen supporters of local sporting activities, put their toe in the water and this year they have become our major sponsor. We hope to continue their involvement with our event for many years to come.”
The other exciting thing happening at Albury is the launch of a new App, which can tell you what speed you are travelling cross country. We don’t have much more information than that at the moment but Lloyd from nominate.com (the online entry company) is the man behind this App so we will catch up with him at the event and be able to tell you more about this technical wizardry soon.
Dressage for all classes is on Saturday with the CIC3*, which is being judged by Bev Shandley and Vicky Brydon, starting at 8.30am. For the introductory and newcomer classes the event is a true one day event as they also do their cross country and show jumping on Saturday, while everyone else has to wait until Sunday for their jumping phases.
Many thanks for the photos provided by Julie Headley