Good commentary on cross country day makes all the difference and Camperdown Horse Trials had this well under control today. Although Barry Roycroft’s microphone failed him a few times, words certainly didn’t and he provided intelligent commentary throughout the day, including a few crackers such as “I wonder if Sonja is eating her sandwiches on course” (when Sonja failed to appear for a while as she was taking Parkiarrup Illicit Liaison slowly) and “He’s a mongrel of a horse, this one” (about WA rider Jessica Manson’s horse Legal Star. Apparently he’s very hard to catch and stayed at Barry’s place for a while last year).
Apart from his jokes, Barry obviously has great experience to call on and helps everyone understand the intricacies of the course, most of which can be seen from the vantage point of the water jump.
Jessica Manson's horse may be hard to catch but looks great through the water!
It was another beautiful day at Camperdown; quite warm but not hot with a light breeze. Although a few of the riders looked a bit hot under the collar (or air vest), it was a perfect day for spectating.
The Preliminary riders set off the action first thing in the morning, having completed their showjumping the day before. All three of the overnight leaders maintained their position with Fiona Hawkes and Isle of Tatiana winning the Preliminary A, Bill Chrisanis and Jaybee Castille winning the Preliminary B and Taylah Lambert winning the Preliminary C.In the Junior Pre-Novice, Ella Groenewegen added one rail showjumping but kept the lead in the Junior Pre-Novice riding Johans Poem.
Chelsea Priestly and Blameitonthebear
All eyes were focussed on the water jump for the start of the CIC cross country phase in mid-morning. This jump is perfect for spectators with shady trees in just the right spots and close to the hub of the event. For some of the riders in the CIC 1*however, the log on top of small hump into the water proved a bit too much. Those who rode it confidently breezed through, especially overnight leader Chelsea Priestly and Blameitonthebear and Megan Jones (not surprisingly) made it look like a demonstration ride on Kirby Park Irish Empress. Indeed, Megan took the lead in the CIC 1* at this point which she maintained by jumping clear in the showjumping to win the CIC 1* on the homebred mare. In second place, also jumping clear was Chelsea Priestly and Adam Benson third with a four fault showjumping round.
Will Enzinger and Ruban Son
In the CIC 2* most of the riders handled the course well with only two riders incurring jump penalties but time faults played an important role in the placings. Barry had already commented, time is always hard to make on this hilly course which requires fit horses and so it was for all classes. Rebekah Mcdougall and ESB Irish Patience proved how important the time was by being the only combination to make time which moved her up to take the lead from Will Enzinger and Ruban Son. But in the showjumping Rebekah had problems at two fences and retired which just shows that it isn’t over till it’s over and Will jumped clear to win on Ruban Son.
Sonja Johnson and Belfast Mojito
The CIC 3* featured several riders who will be riding at the big Australian event of the month at Sydney International 3 Day Event in two weeks time. Sonja had already announced her intention to go steadily on Parkiarrup Illicit Liaison aka Ben (listen to our interview with Sonja here) and Megan took it steadily but ended up with only 14.8 time, leaving her in the lead after cross country. Sonja riding her less experienced horse at this level, Belfast Mojito was actually the second fastest on course with 8.4 time. This meant that Sonja’s horses swopped positions with Mojito moving up to second and Ben moving down to 4th with 22 time. Both Megan and Sonja looked super on cross country and Sonja took the last fence on a very impressive angle as you can see in the video below. 22 time also dropped Will Enzinger down to sixth on TS Jamaimo while Andrew Cooper on Guest of Honour rode the course in the fastest time of 4.8 propelling him up from 11th place to third.
There was little room for error in the showjumping but young Andrew Cooper kept his nerve to jump a clear round and keep third place, knowing that Olympians Sonja and Megan would be unlikely to make a mistake and indeed they both jumped clear. Megan and Kirby Park Allofasudden took the CIC3* title and will now head to Sydney to try and take the 3* and possible Olympic selection there.
Megan and Kirby Park Allofasudden - on their way to London via Sydney?
For full results click here
For coverage from all days of the event, visit the Camperdown Page under Events
