Sam Griffiths and Paulank Brockagh
Australia came to Rio feeling strong after their win in the Nations Cup at Aachen and the cross country day at the 2016 Olympic Games saw them back in contention for team and individual Olympic gold medals after a few years break
The all-male team of both UK and Australian based riders started strongly with the first rider, Sam Griffiths on Paulank Brockagh coming home with just 6.8 time penalties to finish the day in ninth place
“My horse is a star” said Sam modestly “She’s a cross country machine who tries her heart out and all I have to do is steer her. I was first out because Brocks is so experienced and when I went back to the team my advice was just to go for it. There are a few slippery spots out there on turns where you can hit a wet patch so you have to be careful but otherwise stick to your plan”
Boyd Martin was another early rider to pass back word about slippery corners but it wasn’t long before the prediction of slipping on turns came true as New Zealand’s trail blazer Tim Price came crashing down on the flat between fences 23 and 24
“”It was always my plan to go long there” explained Tim “He’s not the most technical type of horse and I was fast enough at that stage, I had time in the bank so the plan was to jump the big wide table direct and fast, turn fast and jump the gate but we only got to the first part of the corner before everything went sideways”
Mark Todd and Leonidas II
It wasn’t a great start for the Kiwis but they soon picked up with a strong ride from Mark Todd and Leonidas II who came home with just two time penalties much to the excitement of the New Zealand crew and the horse’s owners, Pete Cattell and Di Brunsden who were there at the end to greet Mark. This moved Mark up from 17th after a rather tense dressage test into fourth place at the end of the day when Mark thanked Pierre Michelet for the course he had designed
“If it wasn’t the course it was, we wouldn’t be sitting in silver medal position today” said Mark wryly of the Kiwi team, after a less than successful start to their Olympic campaign during the dressage “When we walked the course we all thought it was a strong one but there were alternatives everywhere. We also said that if you wanted to be a medal chance you had to be brave, go fast and go direct. And I think that’s pretty much where it ended up”
Chris Burton and Santano II
When we spoke to Chris Burton about the course on Thursday after he had first walked it, he admitted to being a bit mind-boggled about how his horse Santano II would cope with it. But today Santano showed Chris just how good he is, despite the fact that he is only nine years old and was being presented with his first 4* course.
“We took the long route at Fence 6 because it is such a difficult fence for a horse doing his first 4* but he was so fast around the course I couldn’t believe it. For a horse with such little blood in his breeding, he is a rocket so I’m delighted with him. He grew in confidence as he went around and the guys joked when I came back that he started out like the Pre-Novice horse he is but he came back a 4* horse”
“As a team we’re going enjoy the rest of today and tomorrow, whatever happens” he added “I didn’t expect to be in this position and I’m just going to enjoy it while I am”
When the overnight leader William Fox-Pitt went out straight after Chris and came home with 20 penalties at 20A and 10.4 time penalties, Chris moved into the lead and the ‘whatever happens’ suddenly looked pretty good.
Stuart Tinney and Pluto Mio
Stuart Tinney added to the Australian team’s jubilation, coming home with just 2.8 time penalties on the big grey Pluto Mio who ate up the course, propelling them up the leader board with a massive jump from 58th after dressage to 14th place on 59.60
“Neither of us is that young anymore!” laughed Stuart when asked about how 18 year old Pluto handled the course “I took the long option at Fence 6 because I jumped over the first one a little off line so I decided to take the long route and then at the Gate, because I needed to get another good score back for the team. Despite those long routes he was still pretty fast and he felt fantastic the whole way around, he didn’t put a foot wrong”
And was there extra pressure after Sam and Chris had gone so well? “Oh god, yes! I wanted to take a bit of pressure off Shane too and the other guys had done such a beautiful job so I wanted to do the same thing”
Shane Rose and CP Qualified
Sadly it didn’t work out quite so well for Shane Rose who it seems is just plagued by bad luck at Olympic Games. With the Australian team holding a massive 50 point lead at that time, Shane set off as the last team rider and was enjoying a great round until Fence 30 when he had three refusals at the dreaded frog jump in the last water
“He was going great, he felt pretty good until there, I was on my time then in the last water he just felt a little flat. He just didn’t respond when I turned him to the frog so I decided to pull him off and give him a better shot at it and he just switched off”
“It was disappointing. I was meant to go out there and do a good job and I didn’t quite do it”
Shane was not the only one to deal with disappointment today with several riders expected to perform well having problems. The invincible German team finally showed some cracks as both Sandra Auffarth and Ingrid Klimke picked up 20 penalties and Julia Krajewski had a tough first team experience with elimination for Samourai Du Thot after they had three separate refusals
Michael Jung and Sam FBW
Only Michael Jung put in his usual performance on Sam FBW to finish the day in second place on his dressage score of 40.90 while the German team are in fourth place, 22.50 penalties off the leader Australia on 150.30
Even Michael admitted that it wasn’t a completely easy ride for him, starting with an atmospheric warm up
“Sam felt a lot of pressure in the warm up arena, the speakers were very loud, a lot of people around and he could see the horses galloping on the track nearby so he was really nervous in the warm up and then he was too strong out of the Start Box and he wasn’t listening to me as much as usual. So we had to take a bit more time to set up for the fences but I’m still really happy with him and he’s finished healthy and well”
“Every Olympics is special but this was very different to the feeling you got at Greenwich Park. At Greenwich there was an unbelievable feeling as you galloped from fence to fence with the spectators helping you along – it was very nice here but you didn’t quite get that feeling”
Astier Nicholas and Piaf De B'Neville
Apart from Chris and Michael, the only other rider to produce a double clear round was France’s Astier Nicolas. The second rider of the day, Astier was clearly delighted and relieved when he arrived back
“It was a great ride and it was such a good feeling to go clear for the team. After yesterday, there was huge pressure to go clear and I didn’t realise how stressful it would be but now it’s a great feeling, just joy.”
“The corners at Fence 6 were really tricky, my horse focused on the B element of the long route rather than the direct route which made it tricky and I didn’t like the house to the gate combination. You go down the hill on a tired horse and it’s difficult to turn and put the horse in a good balance to jump the gate safely. There was never a place to drop the reins and just gallop, it’s a really demanding course”
Astier’s third placed score of 42 penalties helped to put the French in a bronze medal winning position on a total score of 161 with Thibaut Vallette and Mathieu Lemoine picking up just time faults and Karim Laghouag, who picked up 20 penalties at 11B, being their discard score
The French team is the only one of the top three to have the luxury of four riders to present at the second horse inspection in the morning. Despite losing Tim Price early in the day, New Zealand shot into contention for the silver medal when Clarke Johnstone riding Balmoral Sensation and Jonelle Price riding Faerie Dianimo came home with just 4.80 and 8 time penalties for equal seventh and 13th places respectively
Clarke Johnstone and Balmoral Sensation
“Sometimes with these high pressure courses you feel as if you’re just getting by with the skin of your teeth but everything went exactly, more or less, according to plan” said Clarke “I walked it six times, which is a record for me, and then I changed my plan at probably three of the fences after watching other people go around. But then everything worked the way I wanted it to”
“He’s been feeling really flat since we got here but today as soon as I got on him, he lit up and in the starting box he was raring to go. I had a new bit on, a Waterford Pelham, and he was really polite in that whereas he was quite strong at Badminton”
“He pulled up really well; he’s not the fastest horse in the world so you have to be going flat out from start to finish so I was expecting him to be pretty tired but he had a low temperature and recovered really well in the cool down. His show jumping record is fantastic and I’m hoping not to ruin it tomorrow!”
It was not a good day at the office for Team GB and Team USA. William Fox-Pitt was ‘very disappointed with the result’ but pleased with his horse after they picked up 20 penalties for crossing their tracks at 20A
“I just couldn’t turn him” said William “It was a serious course and I’m very disappointed but Chilli went well. So I’m pleased with my horse but disappointed with the result”
William's expression after his ride summed up the frustration and disappointment of the whole British team
Pippa Funnell was a bit shaky after finishing her round and paramedics rushed to her with stretchers but it was just a little asthma which was causing her to feel ‘a bit woosy’. Pippa and Billy The Biz had picked up 20 penalties at Fence 30 and Pippa was ‘gutted for Yogi, gutted for the team, shattered for all the connections but I am delighted with him (Billy The Biz)’
“When I walked that last fence I thought ‘That’s really cruel of the course designer this late in the course’. To be honest every time I walked the course I was thinking ‘Oh my god, I’ve come the other side of the world and it’s just going to be too big an ask for this horse right now’. It’s the toughest Games course we’ve seen for a long time and you see a lot of good horses struggling and even good horses going clear making the job look quite difficult. I was worried about creating a good image and I was worried about him because he is so special”
With Kitty King picking up 20 penalties and Gemma Tattersall incurring 40 penalties, the British team are well out of the running in eighth place while the USA are completely out of contention with only two riders left; Boyd Martin and Phillip Dutton. Clark Montgomery retired Loughan Glen at Fence 17B, having already incurred 20 penalties at 14A and Lauren Keiffer took the risk of jumping the gate at Fence 24 on the direct route. Only Michael Jung had taken this route but the risk did not pay off for Lauren whose horse Veronica fell, resulting in elimination
Boyd Martin and Phillip Dutton both dug deep to finish with just 3.2 time penalties each and Phillip surviving a ‘moment’ at Fence 6B
"That fence actually surprised me a bit," said Phillip "He must not have quite understood it, and then I held him in and just got it done, and then I was just trying to catch up for time. He jumped beautifully after that. He's not the fastest horse; he's not a thoroughbred, but he fought really hard right to the very end and came home nicely."
“It was tiring, it was labouring, it was intense. It was question after question and I’m so thankful I was sitting on an old racehorse from Kentucky who kept fighting the whole way home” said Boyd who finished the day in fifth place who was riding a thoroughbred, Blackfoot Mystery “He was definitely on empty coming to the last three and he just tried his heart out and jumped every jump”
“I’m really relieved to have finished well. My biggest fear is to let everyone down, especially the group that bought him and my team mates and my country. The biggest thing that motivates me is the fear of failing”
Carlos Parro and Summon Up The Blood
Brazil’s Carlos Parro is also in the top ten, having added only four time penalties to his dressage score to move up from 33rd to seventh place, giving the home side something to cheer about. It wasn’t just Carlos but all of the Brazilian team who received great support from their home crowd as they made their way around the course to finish the day in fifth place of the team competition
It will be a tense day for both teams and individual riders tomorrow with a lot at stake and little room to manoeuvre. Australia has just one rail in hand over New Zealand in the team competition and Chris Burton’s young horse will have to jump two rounds to contest the individual honours, making it an even bigger ask. The legendary Sir Mark Todd was moved to tears when asked by a New Zealand TV crew about the possibility of winning another medal and it is that huge emotional burden that all of these riders will have to deal with tomorrow in order to attain their dreams
Who will be on the podium tomorrow?
