Clare Abbot and Euro Prince
A beautiful morning greeted the first group of riders into the arena today at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials where young Willa Newton had took an early lead on Chance Remark with a score of 47 at the end of the first session. As Willa told us yesterday, she was not expecting too much from this phase with the 15 year old Chance Remark but she was pleased with nailing the changes and the overall mark.
Just behind Willa on a score of 48.1 was Ireland’s Clare Abbot, surprisingly at her first Burghley, on her Olympic horse Euro Prince. Clare is now looking forward to heading out on cross country on the chestnut Irish Sport Horse that she has built such a strong partnership with
Clare Abbot
Also in the first morning session were Harry Meade and Away Cruising. While Harry is no stranger to Burghley – he has completed on five previous occasions with four, top twenty placings and he last competed at Burghley in 2012 – his horse Away Cruising is having his first Burghley start, having competed in his first 4* at Luhmuhlen this year where he finished in 14th place
The 10-year-old Irish-bred grey gelding by Cruise On (a son of Cruising) has been competed by Harry since a five-year-old and Harry believes that the long galloping track they will face on Saturday will suit the big grey horse
Paul Tapner and Bonza King of Rouges took the lead for a little while ..........
After the first break New Zealand’s Tim Price on Xavier Faer sneaked just ahead of Willa with a score of 46.50 but it was another Antipodean, Paul Tapner riding who later overtook him on Bonza King of Rouges although he wasn’t sure that he would be there for long with Michael Jung warming up to enter the arena
Michael Jung and La Biosthetique Sam
Indeed Michael Jung and La Biosthetique Sam did take the top spot with but there were some uncharacteristic mistakes during the test which Michael acknowledged as his fault. Sam can get nervous in atmospheric arenas, which is why Michael doesn’t ride him in presentations, and today he worked him in for a while in the warm up and did quite a bit cantering in a long, relaxed frame before picking him up to enter the main arena
“I had him prepared for a lot of spectators and quite a bit of pressure in the arena so I tried to have him relaxed but in the end I think he was too relaxed” said Michael “I could have had a little more power and in the canter I didn’t have him completely in front of my leg and I think that caused the problem in the changes”
The scores of 5, 4 and 4 for the flying change brought the score down to 38.9, the first sub-40 score of the day but leaving the door ajar for those yet to come
Australia’s Andrew Hoy was also working on relaxation this morning but it came more through the presence of a four week old baby and the fact that Andrew has done this many times before. Today it was on The Blue Frontier who scored 49.80
