Emily Cammock and Cavorts
In eventing you learn to take each day as it comes and Emily Cammock overcame the disappointment of yesterday when her 3* horse Lewis was eliminated by maintaining her lead today in the CCI1*. She was the trailblazer out on the cross country at the Puhinui International Horse Trials this morning and, although her first ride didn’t quite go plan, she still finished the day in the lead of the Veterinary Associates CCI1*
Her first horse, Donellan was the overnight leader but a couple of ‘fly-bys’ incurred 40 penalties and she also jumped was told that she had an extra fence by mistake, incurring elimination (however at this stage, the results don’t reflect that and she is in 27th place). But her next two rides on Cavorts and Ngahiwi Frostie were foot perfect and it was the eight year old chestnut thoroughbred Cavorts who moved into the lead with a score of 41.9 while her pretty grey is in third place on 45.4.
Emily Cammock
Nick Brooks on Lexington sneaked between Emily’s two horses, also with a double clear round on a horse friendly course which saw most of the combinations make it around with few problems. One of the few eliminations was that of Sofie Boswell and Skagit County who had a fall, resulting in a short hold up on course.
The overnight leader of the Devi Heating Systems CCI 1* Junior class, Greer Caddigan also came to grief with a well executed somersault into the water complex in the Honda Dream Arena but young Lucy Turner made no such mistake, riding double clear rounds on both of her horses to lead on Carbon (49.3) and fourth on the ‘to die for’ pony Tallyho Mystic (56).
Lucy Turner leads the Junior CCI1*
Tallyho Mystic also competes in Pony Grand Prix show jumping so he should be fine jumping tomorrow’s coloured poles but the second and third placed Elizabeth Wylaars and Fleur Rohleder will be aiming to ensure that he doesn’t move ahead of them
Campbell Draper and Mr Mancini
Campbell Draper and Mr Mancini were one of the fastest combinations in the iSpy Horses CCI2* with only 4.4 time penalties to take the lead from Donna Smith when she retired the overnight leader Cluny on course at the water and walked home for her next ride. Nick Brooks riding Striking was the only one to make the time in this class and was also the second fastest on Versace C, moving them up to fourth and seventh respectively
Donna may have lost the lead but she was still absolutely thrilled with her ride on her three horses and particularly Mr Hokey Pokey who is another small horse with a big following
It is tight at the top in this class with Campbell leading on a score of 56.5 but Donna is close behind on My Hokey Pokey (57.70) and third placed Kate Wood riding Wolf Whistle II is also hot on their heels on a score of 59.
Jackson Bovill and Visionaire
Jackson Bovill showed that he is just as stylish on cross country as he is in the dressage with a faultless round on Visionaire to remain on his dressage score of 51.9 and still lead the Honda New Zealand CCI2* Young Rider class. This gives him 5.2 faults in hand over the second placed Sarah Young riding SS Galaxy who had a moment at the water complex when they nearly headed for the hills
“We jumped in big and I lost my reins so we were nearly at the jump on the other side before I them got back. I pulled on my right rein and he immediately swung around so we were back facing the correct way out!”
Despite a little detour, they picked up only 2.8 time penalties and have the advantage of having been in this position before. This pair won this class here last year with Sarah sporting facial bruises after being hit in the face by one of her horses on dressage day – luckily this year she seems to have made it through unscathed!
The final class of the morning was the big one – the Honda New Zealand CCI3* and once again there was a shake up at the top of the leader board. If yesterday Emily Cammock had the disappointment of being eliminated in the CCI3* dressage, today it was poor Dannie Lodder who was eliminated for missing out a fence late in the course. Overnight leaders Dannie and Tomahawk II looked great as they headed around the course, only to discover at the finish that they were eliminated.
Andy Daines and Spring Panorama
The first rider out, Francesca Silver on case in Point, only made it to the fourth fence so it was Andy Daines and Spring Panorama who were the first to complete, much to the crowd’s delight as they applauded him home. For Andy, it was a great feeling and he was delighted with his horse when we caught up with him in the cool down area
Second after the dressage, Sam Felton riding Rickett Ridge Escada didn’t have quite such a good ride, picking up 20 penalties at Fence 4 and moving them down to fifth but their aim at this event is to hopefully qualify for Adelaide next year which Sam is still hoping to achieve tomorrow
Katharine Van Tuyl moved up to second place on the young Double J Sunshine, a horse with an unusual chestnut colour that nearly put Katharine off buying him but his recent performances have put any concerns about his colouring out of her mind. This is his first CCI3* start and the first one for Katharine in a while
“He’s been going so well that I decided I’d better get brave and step up to 3* again. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve competed at 3* and, as he’s only eight years old, it was always going to be a big ask for both of us. He made a couple of little mistakes and today was the first time he ever felt a bit green but he’s the baby of the class and he would have learned a lot from today”
This pair also have a good record here, jumping clear to win the CCI2* last year but Katharine is loathe to make any predictions for tomorrow “I don’t like talking about it before the show jumping” she laughed “So, no comment!”
Virginia Thompson and Star Nouveau
The leader at the end of the day was Virginia Thompson on Star Nouveau and she couldn’t have been happier with her mare who ‘gave me everything she had’ to finish on their dressage score.
Virginia put to rest her reputation as a slow rider, having made a concerted effort to speed up thanks to her very good friend Amanda Pottinger
“A very good friend (Amanda) said to me ‘Ginnie, I don’t want to be rude or offend you but you just have to go faster.’ Someone with a stop beat me a Taupo because of my time faults and that’s just ridiculous! It really hit home and this time I thought, we’ve got one under our belt, we can really start pushing; the ground was good, the course was super and she felt great so it was great to finally make the time”
Virginia and Star Nouveau have two rails in hand heading into the show jumping tomorrow, when we will once again get to see the winners taking the traditional splash through the Puhinui water complex on their victory lap
Time for champagne! L-R: Katharine Van Tuyl, Virginia Thompson, Andy Daines with Honda NZ Director of Marketing Nadine Bell
