Eventing reports
Somerley Park horse trials 2011
For the first time this season Lucinda Frederick decided to take off the hand brake and went all out with Frances Smart’s The Navigator to win the Savills sponsored CIC** at Somerley Park.
Lucinda explained “So far I’ve not really gone for the time as I’ve been concentrating on getting qualifications, but today I thought “Oh stuff it, this ground’s perfect to give Navigator a real gallop” Going into the final phase of the competition Mark Todd, riding NZB Campino, was so far in the lead, on his dressage mark of 35.3 it would have been difficult to get odds on him not winning but Toddy’s luck ran out at the water complex as, although the horse landed cleanly over the entry fence, he tripped on the next stride and both horse and rider went for an early bath. Fortunately both were unhurt but very wet. Lucinda, who was lying third on 46.7, saw Mark’s fall as she waited to start. “I thought Oh God what am I going to do wrong” she said “as I’d ridden my two novice horses like an idiot the day before, but then I said to myself “Pull yourself together Cinda you can win this” The pair notched up a foot perfect round to finish five seconds inside the optimum time and edge ahead of Nick Gauntlett, riding Peter and Mandy Collins’ Tsimshian, who took second place. Lucinda had not ridden in the CIC** at Somerley for sometime, although she has won it on two previous occasions, with Bally Leck Boy in 2006 and The Alligator in 2008. Third place went to Georgie Spence on Velosity III, whose hard work on the horse’s dressage over the winter was rewarded with a score of 49.4. Georgie was also pleased with their cross country performance and said “It was a seriously meaty course, with no real let up fences. After the water, at fence 10, the questions came thick and fast, there was no room for mistakes.” Vicky Brake also put up an impressive performance on Quick Steps to finish fourth.
For the second year running Andrew Nicholson won the Open Intermediate, this time riding Mark and Simon Chamberlayne’s Henry Tankerville. It was only the horse’s second outing after a two year break due to a near fore tendon injury and Mark is delighted to have the 15 year old son of Jumbo out competing again and said “He’s a lovely horse to have around and has lost none of his enthusiasm. We did try a tendon implant when he was first injured, as it works well on racehorses, but unfortunately it didn’t take so it was just a case of giving him time to come right again.” Although the going was perfect over Somerley’s old park turf the optimum time, 6.04minutes, was difficult to make so when Andrew stopped the clock on 6.01 the pair added nothing more to their dressage mark of 28.2 taking them ahead of Pippa Funnell with the Clarke’s Billy Landretti who completed on 28.3. Mary King, riding King Albert, was close behind on 29.6 to finish third.
Intermediate section G was won by William Fox-Pitt riding Lady Voltaire, a horse also coming back after injury. The mare is owned by Lady Best and Sylvia Harley, who have been friends since their school days, and both travelled from their homes in Yorkshire and Kent to enjoy their 12 year old’s success. “William and I found her in Germany a couple of years ago” Lady Best said “She’s by Voltaire out of an Italian thoroughbred, we had great fun with her in 2009 but she missed the 2010 season.” With dressage mark of 22.7 William could afford a few time penalties on the cross country and still finish at the top of the leader board. Jay Halim and Adagio had got off to a good start with a win at Tweseldown but things went bit amiss at Gatcombe where the horse took a dislike to fence 11 , a rail and drop, and refused to go near it. However a quick re route to Somerley put them back on track and they finished second with Gemma Tattersall riding Greenstone in third.
Joss Gray with Derek Pink’s WOW Mystic Pink were the victors in section H, having only their third run at Intermediate level. “I’ve been eventing her about 18 months and she already has 52 points.” Joss commented “She’s very bold and felt like riding an experience horse on the cross country.” Panda Christie and Little Leo finished second with the trail blazers of the day, Michael Jackson and Direct Cruising, in third.
COARSE CHAT
No prizes for guessing which rider managed to ride three quarters of the Intermediate cross country with only one stirrup iron. It was, of course, “Mr Stickabilty himself, Andrew Nicholson who continued on after his left leather became detached from the saddle around fence 5. Not only was his horse, Sintra BK, having his first Intermediate run but Andrew also managed to accrue
only 1.2 time penalties to finish sixth
DESIGNER COMMENT
Somerley’s cross-country course designers Eric Winter and Adele Schardt did a major re vamped of the CIC** for the 2010 event and only made a few alternations this year, including moving the first two fences onto better ground and continuing to improved the attractive water complex. Problems were evenly distributed around the course with 26 of the 49 starter going clear, 8 collecting one refusal and 15 failing to finish. Eric admitted to being a bit surprised that it had caused so much trouble “Last year the ground was wet and deep yet no one had any real problems but this time, with perfect going, we’ve even seen some very experienced riders making mistakes.” he said “ I’m relived it’s happened this way round or I’d be seriously worried!”