Sam Griffiths "on fire" at Bramham Photo: Libby Law
Australian riders vying to be in the London 2012 team were battling with the elements and the competition on both sides of the world yesterday.
While the competitors at the Melbourne International 3 Day Event were doing dressage in the rain (M3DE runs Friday to Monday due to the long weekend in Australia), Sam Griffiths, Kevin McNab, Andrew Hoy and Emma Dougall were also battling the elements at Bramham Horse Trials in the UK.
At Bramham the CCI 3* cross country was dominated by William Fox-Pitt. Riding Christopher Stone's German-bred stallion Chilli Morning, William stormed round Ian Stark's 24-fence course. Despite having a long hold on-course, William was his masterful self and stopped the clock on 10 minutes 31 seconds - spot on the optimum time so added nothing to his dressage of 39.2
William and Avoca Alibi Photo: Libby Law
William commented; "A good day at the office! I'm thrilled with Chilli Morning as its early days for us as a partnership - I haven't even managed to do an advanced one day with him yet! Nick (Gauntlett) has done a great job producing him and I'm lucky to have got the rider on him as an established 12 year old. He was relaxed when galloping but when he sees a fence, he's off like a rocket. He felt really fresh after we were held on course and was great through the final water. He finished full of running and I couldn't have asked for anything more than that.
"It's such a relief to be here at Bramham competing and the team here have done an amazing job, it's remarkable what has been done to keep everything running!"
Six penalties behind is Sylvain Davesne for France riding Oregon du Coty who climbed two places from dressage with a faultless round while Australian Sam Griffiths also ran a foot perfect round clear and under time to be is third on Paulank Brockagh and fourth on Happy Times, again clear jumping and just 1.6 time faults. On the ground at the event for An Eventful Life, Libby Law described Sam as being ‘on fire!!!!’
In the CIC William took over the lead with Neuf des Coeurs, owned by the Skinners and the Halls, from Laura Collett when she had lowered two show jumps while he had a foot-perfect clear. Andrew Nicholson pulled up the order with a faultless round on Deborah Sellars' Nereo, who was Bramham champion in 2009. Zara Phillips showed the reward of a good clear by pulling up to third from tenth on Gledhill House Stud Ltd's High Kingdom.
Andrew and Rutherglen Photo: Libby Law
Andrew Hoy showed his experience and was one of only 14 out of 91 to jump a clear round to bring him up from 20th after dressage to 10th place on Cheeky Calimbo but unfortunately had 12 faults on Rutherglen to drop to 31st. Kevin McNab and Clifton Pinot had four rails to drop to 16th and Emma Dougall on Kelecyn Ice Age is in 36th place after having two rails down
The day was marred however when the news came through that Jagganath, ridden by Michael Jackson, and Lead the Way, ridden by Clea Phillipps had both fatally collapsed. Both horses were attended by the course vets but could not be saved.
Full results from Bramham - click here
Reports, results and photos from Melbourne 3DE – click here
