Somerley Park Horse Trials 2009
Somerley Park
Watching Mark Todd and NZB Land Vision cruise to victory in the CIC** at the Savills sponsored Somerley Park can leave no doubt that the “maestro” has lost none of his winning touch. This was Mark’s first win in the UK since returning from his home in New Zealand to re start his eventing career and he was delighted with the eight year old grey gelding, which won the Intermediate Championship with Oliver Townend last year. “He’s going to be a really smart horse” Mark said “This is only our second event since I bought him from Oli. He came up through the grades very quickly so I just want to give him an easy time and get a bit of mileage and experience. Both my horses went very well (NZB Grass Valley was 16th) but they’re new to me so I need time to get to know them.”
Mark was the first rider of the 60 strong class to complete the cross-country, adding nothing more to a dressage mark of 46.1, setting a target that couldn’t be beaten so leaving the rest of the field fighting for the minor places.
The leaders after dressage had been Abbie Hughes and Ramioros Secret on a mark of 41.7 just ahead of Mackenzie Sanders riding Kings Cross with 43.3 but both rolled poles in the show jumping to drop out of contention. Nick Gauntlett was the only rider who could get close to Mark’s score, finishing on 48.9 with Lisa Stone’s Chilli Morning, taking the runner up spot, and 50.9 on the Arscott family’s Chapel Amble who finished third.
Nick said “I’ve upped the pressure on Chilli Morning now, as he’s ready for a three star, most of the dressage was significantly better than he’s ever done but we did have a couple of little mistakes. Chapel Amble did a lovely test too but she hasn’t quite got the hang of the pirouettes yet.”
Fourth place went to Paul Tapner riding Highspring with Flora Harris and Law Choice in fifth. Georgie Spence on her new ride Birthday Night finished in seventh, taking the trophy for highest placed under 21 for the third consecutive year.
In the Open Intermediate classes Oliver Townend scored a decisive win on Val Ryan’s Imperial Master in section A by adding nothing more to their dressage mark of 25. This gave them a six-point margin over the horse’s former rider Kitty Boggis, with Janet Jarvis’ General Opposition. Kitty had also finished on her dressage mark 31.1 and had lead the section from the start but were relegated to second by Oli flying round in the final moments of the class.
Pippa Funnell, adding 0.8pen to a dressage mark of 25, won OI section B riding Carol Toliver’s Mirage D’Elle and said “Carol, who has show jumpers with my husband William, originally bought him from the D’Elle stud in France to show jump but when it looked as if he wasn’t going to be top class she passed him over to me to event.” The pair finished runners up in the CCI** at Tattersalls last year and are now aiming for the CIC*** at Burnham Market.
One of the highlights of the day was the reappearance of Zara Phillip’s top ride Toytown, who finished second. This was the reigning World Champions first competitive run together for almost a year and Toytown looked well and delighted to be out again, rolling just one pole in the show jumping to add four penalties to their dressage mark of 25. Gemma Tattersall and Chris Stone’s Nyali Beach continued their run of consistently good placings by taking third.
Intermediate section C proved to be a hotly contested affair with no less than 12 riders scoring dressage marks in the 20’s. The eventual winner was “new dad” Francis Whittington riding Catherine Witt’s Easy Target who completed on their dressage score of 22.3, Francis, who’s two week old son Max was making his first visit to an event, said “I don’t know what we’ve done to deserve such a good score but the test did feel really nice. We’ve had two steady runs already this season and I was a bit in two minds about how to run here but with a score like that you just have to go for it.”
Andrew Nicholson took second and third, riding Qwanza and Parkmore Repechage respectively, and then went on to win section D riding Texas, one of the Twenty Twelve In Mind Syndicate’s string of good young horses.
As Somerley Park is the first round of the Mitsubishi Motors Stately Homes Challenge Andrew looked like a “man on a mission” to once again have a crack at the £5000 first prize for the highest accumulation of points in the series, which he shared with Oli Townend last season. The Challenge now moves on to Powderham Castle, Longleat and Wilton, ending in the final at Highclere Castle in August.
The only “casualty” of the event was the third element of fence five, a narrow hayrack, which was so badly damaged when Katrina Marshall and Mount Caballero fell there, during one of the Intermediate sections, it had to be removed from the course. Fortunately both horse and rider escaped injury and fence builder David Carpenter managed to build a new one in time for Thursday’s CIC** class.
Watching Mark Todd and NZB Land Vision cruise to victory in the CIC** at the Savills sponsored Somerley Park can leave no doubt that the “maestro” has lost none of his winning touch. This was Mark’s first win in the UK since returning from his home in New Zealand to re start his eventing career and he was delighted with the eight year old grey gelding, which won the Intermediate Championship with Oliver Townend last year. “He’s going to be a really smart horse” Mark said “This is only our second event since I bought him from Oli. He came up through the grades very quickly so I just want to give him an easy time and get a bit of mileage and experience. Both my horses went very well (NZB Grass Valley was 16th) but they’re new to me so I need time to get to know them.”
Mark was the first rider of the 60 strong class to complete the cross-country, adding nothing more to a dressage mark of 46.1, setting a target that couldn’t be beaten so leaving the rest of the field fighting for the minor places.
The leaders after dressage had been Abbie Hughes and Ramioros Secret on a mark of 41.7 just ahead of Mackenzie Sanders riding Kings Cross with 43.3 but both rolled poles in the show jumping to drop out of contention. Nick Gauntlett was the only rider who could get close to Mark’s score, finishing on 48.9 with Lisa Stone’s Chilli Morning, taking the runner up spot, and 50.9 on the Arscott family’s Chapel Amble who finished third.
Nick said “I’ve upped the pressure on Chilli Morning now, as he’s ready for a three star, most of the dressage was significantly better than he’s ever done but we did have a couple of little mistakes. Chapel Amble did a lovely test too but she hasn’t quite got the hang of the pirouettes yet.”
Fourth place went to Paul Tapner riding Highspring with Flora Harris and Law Choice in fifth. Georgie Spence on her new ride Birthday Night finished in seventh, taking the trophy for highest placed under 21 for the third consecutive year.
In the Open Intermediate classes Oliver Townend scored a decisive win on Val Ryan’s Imperial Master in section A by adding nothing more to their dressage mark of 25. This gave them a six-point margin over the horse’s former rider Kitty Boggis, with Janet Jarvis’ General Opposition. Kitty had also finished on her dressage mark 31.1 and had lead the section from the start but were relegated to second by Oli flying round in the final moments of the class.
Pippa Funnell, adding 0.8pen to a dressage mark of 25, won OI section B riding Carol Toliver’s Mirage D’Elle and said “Carol, who has show jumpers with my husband William, originally bought him from the D’Elle stud in France to show jump but when it looked as if he wasn’t going to be top class she passed him over to me to event.” The pair finished runners up in the CCI** at Tattersalls last year and are now aiming for the CIC*** at Burnham Market.
One of the highlights of the day was the reappearance of Zara Phillip’s top ride Toytown, who finished second. This was the reigning World Champions first competitive run together for almost a year and Toytown looked well and delighted to be out again, rolling just one pole in the show jumping to add four penalties to their dressage mark of 25. Gemma Tattersall and Chris Stone’s Nyali Beach continued their run of consistently good placings by taking third.
Intermediate section C proved to be a hotly contested affair with no less than 12 riders scoring dressage marks in the 20’s. The eventual winner was “new dad” Francis Whittington riding Catherine Witt’s Easy Target who completed on their dressage score of 22.3, Francis, who’s two week old son Max was making his first visit to an event, said “I don’t know what we’ve done to deserve such a good score but the test did feel really nice. We’ve had two steady runs already this season and I was a bit in two minds about how to run here but with a score like that you just have to go for it.”
Andrew Nicholson took second and third, riding Qwanza and Parkmore Repechage respectively, and then went on to win section D riding Texas, one of the Twenty Twelve In Mind Syndicate’s string of good young horses.
As Somerley Park is the first round of the Mitsubishi Motors Stately Homes Challenge Andrew looked like a “man on a mission” to once again have a crack at the £5000 first prize for the highest accumulation of points in the series, which he shared with Oli Townend last season. The Challenge now moves on to Powderham Castle, Longleat and Wilton, ending in the final at Highclere Castle in August.
The only “casualty” of the event was the third element of fence five, a narrow hayrack, which was so badly damaged when Katrina Marshall and Mount Caballero fell there, during one of the Intermediate sections, it had to be removed from the course. Fortunately both horse and rider escaped injury and fence builder David Carpenter managed to build a new one in time for Thursday’s CIC** class.
