Ginny Thompson and Star Nouveau
Virginia (Ginny) Thompson came to Puhinui International Horse Trials with her 11 year old warmblood mare Star Nouveau with the aim of qualifying for her first ever CCI4* in Australia next year. She certainly achieved this but also took home the big prize as the winner of the Honda New Zealand CCI3*, a feat made doubly sweet by the fact that she is also an ambassador for Honda New Zealand.
Ginny and Star Nouveau started well in the dressage in third place and they were the only combination to produce a double clear round in the cross country yesterday. From the nine starters, only five took to the show jumping arena today and it turned out to be a very tight finish.
Ginny’s friend Sam Felton riding Ricker Ridge Escada, also aiming for Adelaide CCI4* next year, was the only one to produce a double clear show jumping round in the large grass arena which, like the hallowed turf of Burghley has its natural undulations plus the added distraction of the water complex in the middle of the arena. They finished in fifth place when Giles Cormack and Lucerno, competing in their first CCI3*, picked up 24 jumping penalties.
Andy Daines and Spring Panorama
Andy Daines and Spring Panorama had a good round with just one rail falling to put them into third place overall
“It was an unlucky first rail” said Andy afterwards “But we pulled ourselves together and he jumped the rest of it really nicely but to come third behind these two ladies, who are just pure class, makes me very happy”
Finishing in second place was Katharine Van Tuyl on Double J Sunshine who jumped a lovely clear round but added two time penalties. This meant that Ginny had 10.2 penalties in hand as she entered the arena and she used q few of them with two rails down and then an agonising wait to hear the final result as they checked her time. In the end she finished in the lead on a score of 69.5, just 1.2 penalties ahead of Katharine who admitted that her young horse was feeling a little tired today
Katharine Van Tuyl on Double J Sunshine
“He lost a bit of fitness work coming into the competition so I was worried about how long the cross country. Then he came out today, and I knew how tired he was, but he jumped a beautiful clear round so I was just rapt with him but unfortunately the jockey was on a bit of a go-slow and Ginny was better than me this weekend!”
For Ginny this has been a great weekend and we caught up with her just after her show jumping round and before she was soaked in champagne!
Virginia Thompson
Watch the CCI3* victory lap here
