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Two Victorian riders scored big wins in 2024 with David Middleton taking the CCI5* at the Adelaide Equestrian Festival early in the season and Sam Jeffree rounding off the year with a win in the CCI4*-L at Sydney International. Now the two will be going head-to-head in the first Australian CCI4* of the year at the 2025 Hanson Tonimbuk International Horse Trials from Friday 7th to Sunday 9th March.
David also won this class at Tonimbuk last year on board WEC In The Breeze and took second place on his Adelaide winner, WEC In The Money while Sam, the leader after dressage and showjumping on Koyuna Tactician, had to settle for third place. This year however Sam will be riding his Sydney 4*-L winner, the 12-year-old Santoro, and the 13-year-old Wimborne Conjuror who was just off the 4* podium at several events in 2024.
They will both be hotly chased by Sophia Hill, who spent much of last year competing overseas with her top horse Humble Glory. She will be riding Tulara Baltango, the talented 10-year-old warmblood gelding who will be having his first CCI4* start here after a very successful season in 2024 at 3* level.
Kenny Walsh on Eliva Corduroy, Kirilee Hosier on AEA Flynn, Yona Lloyd on Ballahowe Ayurvedic and Luke Jones on Spirit round out the nine combinations taking part in the VRW Civil CCI4*-S who will be doing dressage on Saturday afternoon and showjumping in the Main Indoor Arena at Tonimbuk Equestrian Centre in the evening.
The Horseland CCI3*-S class has 31 entries with last year’s winners, Edward Darby and Dawn of the Day returning, no doubt looking to replicate his win and have another crack with the horse that Tim Price liked so much at EQUITANA, Somerset Day, aka Mr Perfect, according to Tim, who was not quite so perfect here last year, managing to dislodge Edward on cross country.
The Charlie’s Stockfeed CCI2*-S class will also be busy with 41 combinations coming forward and some more of Julia Gibson’s (Edward Darby’s mum) homebreds will be featured here with Alice Darby riding Hermione Day and Yona Lloyd riding Mischief Managed To Day, who took the CCI2*-L win at Camperdown at the very end of last season.
We’ll also be keeping an eye on India’s Shashank Kataria who is aiming to qualify horses for the FEI Asian Championships later this year, riding Icaro LB as a strong contender in the 3* here and a new ride, Bullseye, previously competed by Sam Woods, in the CCI2*-S. But the one to watch in this class will probably be Lamoza Velisha on her two horses, Call Me Cooley and Ophelia Van Prinseveld, who had such a successful year in 2024.
There are of course national classes taking place at Tonimbuk too with four sections of EvA80, three sections of EvA95 and two sections of CCN1* so plenty of action happening over the three days!
An Eventful Life will be filming all competitors on cross country as well as providing daily wrap ups and our full report after the competition here and keep an eye on our socials for snippets throughout the weekend.
