Donna Smith and Balmoral Tangalooma Photo: Barbara Thomson
The first Super League event of the spring eventing season takes place at the Fiber Fresh National Equestrian Centre, Taupo, this weekend, 12/13 October, with nine of the North Island’s top horse and rider combinations contesting the CIC (international short format) 3* class.
Trans-Tasman team members feature, including Simon Gordon, Auckland, on Fletch.com, the current NZ Eventer of the Year and winner of the Bell Tea Super League last season, Donna Smith, Te Kauwhata, on Balmoral Tangolooma, the current national three-day event title holder, and Bruce Newman, Bulls, on his mother-in-law Fay McSweeney’s Bates Trademark.
Smith is planning to take Tangolooma, owned in partnership with her father Graham, partner Simone Kann and Gay McClunie, to Adelaide for the Australian International Three-day Event in November, one of only six CCI (international long format) 4* events in the world and the only one in the southern hemisphere.
However Trans-Tasman reserve, Dannie Lodder, Auckland, on Petra Eatson’s Moochi, could be the one to steal everyone’s thunder at Taupo, after a comfortable win in the final buildup event at Hastings last weekend, ahead of Monica Oakley, Waipukurau, on Fontain.
Oakley is also hoping to make the trip to Adelaide with Fontain, who has limited experience but shows great potential, and has been named in the squad to train for the next Trans-Tasman challenge in 2015.
A total of 290 entries have been received for the event, which caters for all six levels of the ESNZ Eventing series. Apart from the Super League, eligible competitors will contest the AMS-Erreplus Pro-Am, Massey University Young Rider, Alltech Junior Rider, and Weatherbeeta Grassroots, as well as the Amateur series.
Live scoring will be available on www.equestrianentries.co.nz all weekend, with the dressage and showjumping taking place on Saturday and the cross-country on Sunday.
Article by Virginia Caro
