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Clarke Johnstone and Balmoral Sensation - Honda NZ CCI3* winners
At Puhinui International Horse Trials last year Clarke Johnstone was without a top horse after returning from overseas but a certain grey horse ridden by Donna Smith that won the CCI2* had caught his eye. This year the stunning grey Balmoral Sensation and Clarke took the Honda NZ CCI3* having led from start to finish in an impressive display and on a sub-40 score.
Sadly Donna Smith, who was in second place in this class on Tangalooma after the cross country, had to withdraw before the second horse inspection, leaving Clarke with a huge margin of 22.6 penalties over the next combination, Fraser King riding Nadal KSNZ. Only six competitors from the original field of 13 went into the final phase and, despite some rails falling, the leader board remained the same. Jessica Woods in her first ever CCI3* put on a good performance with a clear round on Defies Logic while Nick Gauntlett was philosophical about his two rails and three time faults on El Grado as part of their familiarisation phase. It was still good enough to hold on to third place however, finishing on a score of 73.4 while the galloping barrister Fraser King had one rail riding Nadal KSNZ to stay in second place on 65.6.
Clarke had plenty of room to manoeuvre both literally and metaphorically in the big grass arena where he and Balmoral Sensation jumped a double clear round to finish on his personal best dressage score of 39.
Clarke Johnstone
Clarke literally didn't see that one coming, thanks to Nick Gauntlett's flag
As always there was plenty of joviality at the press conference which is handily located next to the Sponsors Marquee; handy for people to join in and also handy for some cold champagne which was expertly opened by Tim Price in Formula One fashion, spraying the placegetters and the wonderful sponsor from Honda. Clarke Johnstone had the perfect foil by putting his riding helmet back on; not only did the winner have to endure being sprayed with champagne but also had to suffer being draped in a British flag by Nick Gauntlett.
However, Clarke has the last laugh after such a successful weekend and when Nick was asked if he was taking back any other horses to the UK he quickly responded that “I wouldn’t mind taking home the two ahead of me”.Although Balmoral Sensation may be heading overseas next year to compete at Luhmuhlen, Clarke will very definitely be in the saddle and judging by the width of Fraser King’s smile when he talks about his horse Nadal KSNZ, it seems that El Grado will be boarding the plane back to the UK on his own on Wednesday.
Flying high - Katharine Van Tuyl and Double J Sunshine
In comparison to the huge lead that Clarke had in the CCI3*, it could not have been any closer in the Cato Packaging CCI2* with Diane Gilder and Katharine Van Tuyl both on 55.4 after a very influential cross country day. The only clear round leading up to the top three came from Dannie Lodder and Waitangi Icon to move up from sixth to fourth while Cherie Jacques and Tobinator were very close with just one time fault for fifth. Virginia Thompson and Star Nouveau, who had one of only three double clear cross country rounds yesterday, dropped one rail then Katharine Van Tuyl piled the pressure on Diane by jumping a clear round. Diane and Your Attorney couldn’t quite match it, leaving Katharine and her seven year old Double J Sunshine the CCI2* winners
Ashleigh Collett and MiFocus
Earlier in the day Aleisha Collett had set the tone for the later winners by also clinching the Veterinary Associates CCI1* with a clear round. Again it was very tight at the top in this class and although Ashleigh Mckinstry dropped out of contention with three rails on the second placed Ngahiwi Makem, Asleisha and her young mare Mi Focus had to jump clear to stay in front of the very experienced Donna Smith riding SE Godswalk.
21 year old Aleisha jumped a very well judged and calm round but there were a few tears later when she hugged her mum and friends and she admitted when she spoke to us that she hadn’t slept much during the last few days due to nerves
Sarah Young and SS Galaxy
Two other young riders also have had a big few days here in Auckland with Abigail Long winning the CCI1* Junior and Sarah Young winning the CCI2* Young Rider National 3 Day Event Championships. Sarah has battled through the event with facial bruises after being hit in the face by one of her horses on dressage day. Second after the dressage and cross country phases she took the win today riding SS Galaxy with a clear round when the leader, Tayla Mason and Lucy with Diamonds had two rails down. Sarah and SS Galaxy finished the day with the traditional winner's celebration lap through the water jump
Abigail has been impressive throughout the whole event, leading from start to finish. Riding BMW Advokaat around on Tuesday, they were the first horse and rider we saw at the event when Abigail confided that she hoped to do really well this weekend. You did Abigail, you did
Abigail Long and BMW Advokaat
