The winding cross country course at Pau with its numerous skinnies, angled fences and long straits up to the hippodrome capped by a spectacular finish made for a perfect afternoon’s entertainment in sunny autumn conditions. And, although the riders had thought that Pierre Michelet’s CCI4* track at Les Etoiles de Pau would be more tricky this year than last it caused surprisingly few problems on Saturday
Chris Burton and the ex-racehorse obviously liked the racetrack course at Pau
Chris Burton proved straight away, as he so often does, that the time was achievable on his Australian thoroughbred TS Jamaimo to come home clear and under time but it was more of an afternoon’s exercise for the pair as, despite their great performance on cross country, they now sit in 22nd place after a poor start in the dressage.
Only one other rider was to emulate Chris’ performance and it was a very popular one for the home crowd – France’s Maxime Livio on Qalao des Mers, a combination we picked yesterday as One to Watch. This moved them up to second place overall on a score on 45.3 and Maxime was a clearly delighted with his 12 year Selle Français gelding as they galloped over the finish line bang on the optimum time of 11 minutes
Maxime Livio and Qalao des Mers
However Michael Jung held on to his lead from the dressage phase but not with the dressage leader. Michael finished just one second over the time on the 11-year-old mare FischerRocana FST putting them into the top place on a score of 44.2 while he took the less experienced FischerTakinou more steadily to finish in fifth place on 48.1
Michael Jung and fischerRocana
There is less than a rail between the top five with Nicola Wilson remaining in third place, adding just 2.8 time penalties to her score (46.4) and Jock Paget on Clifton Signature adding 4 time penalties to his dressage score to sit on 48 penalty points and move up two places to fourth
Second after the dressage, Britain’s Alexander Bragg had a good ride on the big Dutch warmblood Zagreb, following Jung’s lead in taking a neat line out of the final water complex, but 12.4 time penalties dropped him to ninth place while two other British riders previously in the top ten, Laura Collett and Kirsty Johnston have dropped out of contention.
Nicola Wilson and One Two Many
Laura had a frustrating fall just two fences from home when her 4* first timer Pamero hung a leg at the upright Artists’ Palette fence and Kirsty had an early run-out at Fence 4 on Opposition Detective. On the other hand for Britain, the very experienced Tina Cook showed all her class aboard her Olympic reserve, Billy The Red, to rise five spots to eighth while France also has last year’s winner Astier Nicolas in the top 10 aboard another 4* first timer Molakai and the USA’s Boyd Martin is in sixth place on Cracker Jack
Rounding out the top ten is Australia’s Sonja Johnson on Parkiarrup Illicit Liaison just 0.2 penalties behind Alexander Bragg and 11.4 penalties behind the leader. This is Sonja’s first visit to Pau in twelve years but she obviously likes this course, moving up from 19th with a good clear round and just 5.2 time penalties. It hasn’t been the best overseas campaign for Sonja this year (apart from a very good ride at Aachen and a flashy gold rug!) but her ride here showed how this pair normally performs
Sonja Johnson and Nikki Harwood's Parkiarrup Illicit Liaison fly the water
Nicola Wilson on her second horse Annie Clover, Ireland’s Camilla Speirs and Cathal Daniels and France’s Karim Florent Laghoua all made significant jumps, not on the actual cross country but on paper as they all moved into the top 15 with fast clear rounds
New Zealand’s Tim Price was one of the few victims of Pierre’s course when he was eliminated at Fence 22A, the last water jump, where Xavier Faer had an awkward jump in over the log, decanting Tim. On the whole the however the course rode well with 35 clear rounds and 39 finishers from the 48 starters and time will now tell how all of the horses recover from their exertions on cross country
Last year at Pau Michael Jung was sitting in first and second place after cross country but withdrew Halunke after being held the second horse inspection; four faults in the show jumping on fischerRocana - who was held at the first horse inspection here - then cost him the win when the young French rider Astier Nicolas jumped clear. This year he is again in the lead on fischerRocana with a young French man hot on his heels .........
