Shane Rose and CP Qualified
Shane Rose and CP Qualified won the Equestrian NSW CCI3* nearly 15 marks ahead of second placed Jessica Manson riding Legal Star. It was a good victory, although Shane was kicking himself for some rails down in the show jumping phase on both of his horses. While the grey CP Qualifed took one rail down Taurus took down four, although he still finished in third place.
“I think I have a little bit of work to do on my showjumping,” said Shane “and it would be fair to say I’m disappointed with my performance on Taurus but it just makes me want to work harder and get better results. But I'm still glad to be sitting here with a first and a third in a good 3* class”
Take a look at Shane’s show jumping round with CP Qualified in this video below.
Sadly Megan Jones had to withdraw Flowervale Maserati prior to this morning after he sustained a small injury on cross country day. “He was super yesterday,” said Megan “I know I got time penalites but after going the long way at the Offset Ditch fence I pretty much knew I wouldn’t be able to make up the time. So I was very happy with him and it’s disappointing that we can't complete the event today – but that’s horses.”
Jessica Manson and Legal Star
Jessica Manson’s performance with Legal Star was impressive when you think the pair had moved up from 15th after dressage to 3rd by the end of cross country day. Today’s show jumping round was great to watch and the pair finished with just one rail down and a big smile on Jess’s face. Legal Star was bought for Jess as a pony club horse and has just kept getting better and better with the pair finishing fourth at Adelaide CCI4* in 2012 and being part of the Young Rider Trans Tasman Eventing Challenge in 2010 where they finished second individually.
We caught up with Jess at the end of what had been an exciting day.
The CCI3* prize giving turned out to be an emotional affair for many people and it all started when the winner of the Mike O’Callahan Grooms Award was announced. We’ll bring you the full story in the next few days but the shortened version is …
Mike O’Callahan, who had been stable manager at the big events at SIEC for many years, sadly died last year so the Award had been named in his honour - this in itself led to tears from many of Mike’s friends who were in the crowd.
The Award was won by Michelle Robson, who was grooming for Shane and working her last day as part of the Bimbadeen Park Team, having decided after many years it was time to move on - more tears from Shane, Michelle and many of us who knew what a special partnership these two people have shared.
After this award Jade and Jean Findlay's presented the Holstein Park Leilani Trophy for the best placed mare, which went to Hillgrove Enviable, ridden by Rebel Morrow. At the same time Holstein Park Leilani was ridden in to the arena by Jade and retired ... yes you guessed more tears!
But more about all of that later …
The small CCI2* class had reduced to ten at the end of cross country day and when Murray Lamperd withdrew Don Skipcello overnight it left just nine to trot up this morning. But all those nine looked fit and well including the eventual winner, Rockingham No Reason, ridden by Teegan Ashby. Mind you the result couldn’t have been closer with only 0.3 seperating Teegan and second placed Gabrielle Pither. Not only did Teegan win the overall CCI2* class she also won the Young Rider class and poor Rockingham No Reason (known as Boris) had to cope with wearing two winners rugs!
Teegan and Boris with several ribbons and rugs
We asked Teegan if she thought she was being a little greedy taking home two winners rugs!
It was a similar situation for Gabrielle (pictured above) who, as another young rider, picked up two second placings. As we said yesterday we didn’t know much about Gabrielle so we chatted to her at the end of the day and discovered that this young rider from WA is about to spend some time training with our own blogger, Tallara Barwick. I’m sure we’ll hear more about how Gabrielle is going in Tallara’s next blog (hint, hint Tallara) but for the moment hear what Gabrielle had to say about herself, her horse and her weekend click on the icon below.
In the CCI* it was a win for Lauren Balcomb who led the class with Guido Hatzis from start to finish. Lauren added just one rail from show jumping to her dressage score of 40.3 but it still left her four marks ahead of second placed Jessamy Walsh riding Keep Walkin.
A very happy Lauren
We spoke to Lauren just after her show jumping round when she was surrounded by many friends and supporters and asked her about her show jumping 'moment'.
Going into show jumping Christine Bates and Dougal O’Reilly had been lying second and after a beautiful show jumping round it looked as if they would hang onto that second position but it was then discovered that the pair had picked up four time penalities. At the end of the class only three riders out of 19 had managed to not collect time penalties, which seemed a little unfair as some lovely rounds had been jumped, with riders disappointed to discover they had collected time penalties.
Apart from Lauren who was clear on time, Jessamy Walsh (pictured above) and Sam Lyle also managed to go fast enough to finish second and third respectively.
The IRT Junior section of the CCI* was won by Jordyn Faint, who finished 12th overall. Jordyn looked a little phased to be collecting her winners rug. “It’s been a good weekend, even though it didn’t start off that way” said Jordyn. “Our dressage wasn’t’ very good, but it’s not normally very good so I wasn’t really expecting anything else. But he’s a really good jumper and managed to get round the cross country course without any problems and although we had a couple of rails down today I’m still pleased with him.”
And that was Sydney over for another year. With a hectic programme including both eventing and World Cup show jumping the eventing classes were all done and dusted by mid-day. This allowed many of those riders with long journeys home the chance to hit the road early and get their precious equine cargos home to their paddock.
