Shane Rose and Taurus
There is no doubt that Shane Rose has an affinity for the picturesque Scone Horse Trials held at Gundy. Personally I think it is one of the most beautiful places in the world to have an event. Lots of big sky, hills, mountains and this year very green. I was lucky enough to be asked back as Technical Delegate (TD) so I had a busy weekend. 431 horses started in seven grades from CNC3* to Newcomers EV60 class. On Saturday we ran all there phases with Prelim EV95 and Newcomers EV60 doing their cross country in fact the Newcomers did all three phases on Saturday which I am sure was daunting for some of those nervous riders.
But the weekend was all Shane Rose, he won the CNC3*, CNC2* and CNC1*A classes making it a very good weekend in the office for the soon to be dad. Shane's wife Nikki was looking great with a prominent baby bump and still managed to walk a few cross country courses with the team from Bimbadeen Park. Nikki is due the week before the Eventing Equestriad at Camden, the event that she and Shane run, that will be interesting timing.
Emma Mason and F1 Pharinelli
Shane and Taurus looked unbeatable from the dressage right through, they powered through XC the fastest on course picking up 3.6 time just one second faster than second placed Emma Mason and F1 Pharinelli. Emma and F1 jumped a faultless round in the ring giving Shane just one rail up his sleeve but he didn't need it and looked just brilliant to jump clean and retain his start to finish lead.The top four finishers at Scone are all contenders for the Aussie team for London, with Craig Barrett and Sandhills Brillaire in third place and Christine Bates on Adelaide Hill in fourth. Both Shane (Taurus) and Christine (Delago) will travel to Kihikihi in New Zealand the day after Albury. Christine will be running Adelaide Hill at Albury before taking on Mike ES's Sydney course and I would expect both Emma and Craig to have similar timetables as they each need to prove they have the results and the stamina to be on that plane to London.
Maatea Davidson and Fairbanks Elle
One horse that didn't end up completing after picking up a small nick on its leg on XC is Clifton Pinot, ridden by Kevin McNab.Kevin is planning to take Clifton Pinot to Kentucky to compete at Rolex on the same weekend as Sydney. This program is the brainchild of Frances Stead of Clifton Eventing, who supporting Kevin in having a shot at London. The program that Frances has set involves getting Kevin and Pinot to Rolex, then on to the UK to compete in the lead up to London and then…… Kevin is excited by the prospects and extremely happy to have such a supportive owner behind him.
