Boyd Martin and Welcome Shadow at Les Etoiles de Pau 2016
Boyd Martin has once again scooped the top prize at the Wellington Eventing Showcase in Florida.
After jumping clear on Welcome Shadow in the morning’s show jumping round Boyd moved into second place of the Wellington Eventing Showcase, just 1.6 penalties behind the overnight leaders Marilyn Little and RF Scandalous. Australia’s Ryan Wood, who had been in second place on Powell unfortunately had three rails in this phase, dropping him down the leader board but his second horse Fernhill Classic produced a clear round to move up from 29th to 17th
The show jumping proved to be Mark Todd’s nemesis with a bit of a horror round on one of his catch rides, l’Alezan to pick up 20 jumping penalties and three time and 16 penalties on Anna Bella, who was subsequently withdrawn. Richard Jeffery’s course caught a few out with Clayton Fredericks also withdrawing his two rides after the show jumping, Boyd Martin being eliminated on his other horse Long Island T, who refused twice at the third fence and Dan Jocelyn withdrawing L & N Lady Colina before the cross country
“I think that the show jumping was bigger than at Rolex!” said Boyd in the post-event Press Conference (see video below) but the cross country was also more testing this year
The beautifully built cross country course designed by Captain Mark Phillips included a jump through the middle of the VIP marquee as the final fence of 23 efforts on course. The time of 3:59 was achieved by only two riders; Buck Davidson who finished second overall on Petite Flower (30.9) thanks to a clear show jumping and double clear cross country round and Doug Payne on Vandiver who added just four penalties in the show jumping for third place (34.2)
However it was Boyd who won for the third time in a row with just 0.8 time penalties when Marilyn Little was unable to ride the leader RF Scandalous. Marilyn fell from her first ride RF Demeter at the 17th fence and subsequently had to withdraw Scandalous – Marilyn was taken to hospital as a precaution but is reported to be fine
While Mark Todd finished down the leader board due to his show jumping round, he proved what an ace he is on cross country, completing the cross country with just 9.2 time penalties but it was William Fox-Pitt’s great rounds on both of his rides, Steady Eddie and RF Quarterman, that gave him two top finishes in seventh and tenth places. William completed with the third fastest time of the day on Steady Eddie. His wife Alice was obviously pleased but a little anxious about two catch rides, saying on Twitter
“Wow! Worried 2 day but so proud tonight. @foxpitteventing gets 2 in top 10 in $100k #EventingShowcase in Florida on 2 borrowed horses #genius”
No doubt there will be some good action footage coming up but in the meantime, here is what the top three riders and event organiser Mike Bellisimo (of Tryon WEG fame) had to say thanks to the video by Eventing Connect
