Tina Cook's first ride on Star Witness was inspired and inspiring - and her second ride was oh so nearly the same
“I’m surprised that more people didn’t go the long way at Discovery Valley” commented the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials’ cross country course designer Captain Mark Phillips several times today and they must be words ringing in Tina Cook’s ears
He also commented that the round of the day for him was the first, again Tina Cook on her first horse Star Kingdom. The trailblazing ride was double clear and inspiring, moving them up to 10th place, and no-one doubted that Tina could do it again later in the day on her top placed horse Calvino II. But the day was full of surprises
After Tina made the course look so easy, it soon became apparent that it really was not so as various riders fell by the wayside, racking up penalties, time faults or parting from their horse.
The second rider, Oliver Townend on his first horse Samuel Thomas II, picked up 20 penalties towards the end of the course and Andrew Nicholson fell heavily from Qwanza at the new fence Storm Doris. Andrew took a few moments to compose himself and admitted to being winded but ‘when you’ve got a horse like Nereo on standby, you’d have to be in a bad way not to ride him’. He did indeed ride him later in the day and, adding just 7.6 time penalties, they finished in sixth place on 47.1
Young Willa Newton was having a great ride on Chance Remark but two refusals in quick succession towards the end of the course at fences 27 and 29 ended their hopes; for a moment it looked as if Willa would put her hand up but she opted to continue on and completed with 40 jumping penalties and 38 time penalties.
New Zealand’s Caroline Powell had a few green moments early in the course on her less experienced horse Spice Sensation and they picked up 20 penalties at Fence 23 but this will be another pair to watch in the future
Caroline Powell
Caroline completed without jumping penalties on her second horse Onwards and Upwards but they picked up 16 time penalties for a score of 65.5 and 14th place
Tim Price and Ringwood Sky Boy
Her fellow Kiwi Tim Price followed straight afterwards on Xavier Faer and they were having a great run, well up on the clock until they had a run out at Fence 30. Tim spent a bit of time getting his head back into gear then went out and rode a very effective round on Ringwood Sky Boy later in the day although there were a couple of ‘moments’
“There are always a few moments with him” admits Tim who was spurred on by the owner of Sir Mark Todd’s horse Pete Cattell, urging him to ‘go out and win it’. Tim has not yet won it but he is in a great position in fourth place on a score of 46.5
But why would Pete Catell say that when his horse, Leonidas II was leading after the dressage? Well, one of the huge shocks of the day was the fall of Mark’s horse at Fence 26; although very frustrated and disappointed, Mark was fine.
“I was having a really good ride and he was fairly well up on time,” he said “At Discovery Valley he just over-jumped. I may not have had too nice a stride into it and he just launched and lost his footing when he landed. It is not something he has ever done before . . . it is just really frustrating. Without that we probably would have been inside the time. I am not going to have too many more chances here.”
This shock was matched only by that of the retirement of Michael Jung earlier. Michael and La Biosthetique Sam looked on phenomenal form, taking the Lion Bridge water (where Michael fell and broke his leg two years ago) more slowly this year, looking a dream over Storm Doris and the Rolex Combination but Sam had a run out at the Land Rover Trout Hatchery (Fence 23) and Michael opted to walk home.
La Biosthetique Sam owes no-one anything and, although it is a shame we won’t see them tomorrow, it was a good decision by Michael for this 17 year old legend of the sport
Suddenly things took on a different perspective as we were losing past winners and Olympic medallists and they were joined by Zara Tindall who took a fall in the Trout Hatchery when High Kingdom, who was eating up the course to that point, seemed to leave his front leg right over the Triple Brush, causing him to screw over the fence and not giving Zara much chance
In second place after the dressage, Lauren Kieffer and Veronica dropped down to 13th with 28 time penalties but two of her compatriots, Lynn Symansky on Donner and Boyd Martin on Steady Eddie put in great performances to move into eighth and ninth places respectively with just 3.6 and two time penalties
Izzy Taylor and Trevidden
Britain’s Izzy Taylor also moved up the leader board and into third place with an impressive ride on Trevidden, finishing on their dressage score. Naturally, Izzy was delighted
Gemma Tattersall and Arctic Soul
Gemma Tattersall also produced a fast and clear round on her thoroughred Arctic Soul, despite feeling unwell due to a bad cold. They head into the show jumping on a score of 43 in second place
Only two combinations could move ahead of Gemma and they were Tina Cook on Calvino II and Oliver Townend on Ballaghmor Class. In a stroke of bad luck, Tina was enjoying a fabulous run when the previous rider, Lillian Heard fell from LCC Barnaby, and Tina was held for quite a while at the fence before Discovery Valley where they had a run out on re-starting
Tina was understandably very disappointed but blamed no-one saying ‘It’s part of the sport’
Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class
So could Oliver Townend on the inexperienced Ballaghmor Class, competing at his first CCI4* take the lead? Yes, he could. They didn’t quite make the time, but they added only 0.4 time penalties to sit on top of the leader board at the end of the day in an impressive performance and it seems that Oliver’s faith in this difficult horse is paying off
Tomorrow will be an exciting finale with less than two rails between the top six and at least three British riders battling it out to be the next Burghley champion
Top Six results after XC
Oliver Townend (GBR) and Ballaghmor Class: 40.6
Gemma Tattersall (GBR) and Arctic Soul: 43
Izzy Taylor (GBR) and Trevidden: 45.6.
Tim Price (NZL) and Ringwood Sky Boy 46.5
Piggy French (GBR) and Vanir Kamira: 46.9
Andrew Nicholson (NZL) and Nereo: 47.1
