Michael Jung and his new star, Star Connection
The show jumping phase of the Event Rider Masters CIC3*opened the door for Michael Jung to take a win at his ERM debut and he shot through it in the cross country later in the day
Lying fifth after the dressage Michael’s nine year old Star Connection showed he is a future star by jumping one of only three clear rounds in the morning’s show jumping and they followed it up by jumping clear with just 2.8 time faults to beat France’s Karim Florent Laghouag by just 0.4 penalties or one second.
Brilliant timing or good luck? Probably the former but at the end of the day it means that Michael is posed to dominate this series as he does many other areas of the sport thanks to his horsepower and talent
On one of his more experienced horses Michael would probably have the made the time on cross country as 13 of the riders, including second placed Karim Florent and third placed Oliver Townend, showed that it was very achievable on the Pierre Michelet cross country course
On the other hand, time was of the essence in the morning’s show jumping, which caused the first of the day’s shake-ups. Three combinations, France’s Donatien Schauly on Pivoine Des Touches, Oliver Townend on Cooley Master Class and Michael Jung on Star Connection achieved clear rounds inside the optimum time of 68 seconds but the leaders after the dressage, Bettina Hoy and Andrew Hoy both dropped down the leader board in this phase
Riding Seigneur Medicott, who has jumped clear at his last two CIC3* wins at Houghton and Luhmuhlen, Bettina had five time faults with Seigneur Medicott and a rail at fence 10, dropping them to seventh before cross-country while Andrew added one rail and one time fault moving him down to sixth place.
Trouble for Thibaut at 20B
The cross country course caused few problems but it claimed the scalp of Thibaut Vallette and Qing du Briot ENE HN, second after the dressage and show jumping, who had a run out at 20B while Andrew Hoy and Cheeky Calimbo were very nearly home before a ‘cheeky’ run out at Fence 25
Oliver Townend and Cooley Master Class
Speed demon Oliver Townend was disappointed that the time wasn’t harder to achieve on cross country as Cooley Master Class ate up the course to finish in third place, despite the fact that the horse has not had a cross country run for several months. Second placed Karim Florent Laghouag almost held on the top spot on the podium as they waited for Michael Jung to come home but in the end he had to relinquish the ‘top dog’ chair to Michael
Karim Florent sees Michael coming and Gemma is moved off the podium
Britain’s Sarah Cohen on Treason, winners at Weisbaden and Gemma Tattersall on Chico Bella P both jumped clear in the morning but had two time faults and they followed this up with good cross country performances. Sarah finished ninth thanks to a double clear cross country ride while Gemma just missed out on the time, finishing with two time penalties on Chico Bella P and missing out on a podium finish.
It did give her important points however for the overall series leader board, putting her in the top spot on 74 points after the first four legs while Sarah is in second on 69 points and Thomas Carlile (FRA) who won Leg 3 last weekend sits in third on 56 points.
The Event Rider Masters continues with Leg 5 at the Festival of British Eventing, Gatcombe Park, presented by BETA on the 5th and 6th of August.
Results and all of the action from Leg 4 can be viewed at Eventridermasters.tv
