Steve Spencer from Saddleworld Mittagong presents Bols with her CNC* prizes
Charlie Brister admitted that Annabel Armstrong deserved to win the Saddleworld CIC* at Berrima after he hadn’t ridden the best of show jumping rounds on Timmy Almighty. “Bols (Annabel) rode much better than I did … but I don’t like coming second,” laughed Charlie.
Charlie had jointly led the dressage with junior rider Isabelle Bowditch-McIntyre but when Timmy Almighty took a couple of rails down on the show jumping and Isabelle had a fall at the penultimate cross country fence Bols had a little bit of time up her sleeve on the cross country course. Bols was riding Tandarra Sweet Talk, who recently won the EvA105 at Goulburn, and who looked to make the step up to 1* level easily as the pair cruised round the course finishing with just 2.8 time penalties. This gave them a good win over five marks ahead of Charlie.
We spoke to the top two after the prize giving and gave Charlie the chance to explain to us what had gone wrong …
The prizes for the Centennial Vineyards EvA015 are presented to Ali Malcom by her sister, Emily,
who was at the event as a representative from the winery as well as being there as a supportive sister
It’s always nice to finish your eventing year on a high and that’s just what Alice (Ali) Malcolm did riding Throsby Park Sonnet to victory in the Centennial Vineyards EvA105. In Ali’s interview below she pays great tribute to her mum and sister who had both competed and schooled Sonnet in the past but you can’t take away from Ali that she has been the one riding Sonnet this year and has produced some super results.
The leader after dressage in the EvA105 was Alexandra Frail on a terrific score of 31.8 but some time penalties cross country and a rail down show jumping dropped Alex back a little but she still collected the prize for finishing third. Ali was lying second behind Alex after dressage on a score of 39 and added nothing to that score to finish as the only rider on a sub forty mark.
For Charlie Brister second place was the order of the day as he had picked up two more red ribbons by the end of the weekend. One came from the Fox Hill Farm EvA95 class where he finished second on Ashmead Her Highness and the other was in the EvA 80 riding Tallyho Second Chance.
Sarah Aitken led from start to finish in the Fox Hill Farm EvA95 adding just four time penalties from cross country to her dressage score of 45, while George Sheridan won the Main Event Photography EvA95 riding Equus Brooklyn. Justine Blunden rode Syracuse, who a few years ago was owned and ridden by Alex Townsend from Wallaby Hill, into first place in the Highland Drilling EvA95 class.
The man behind Berrima Horse Trials, Vince Roche, models the new Berrima polo shirts
The EvA80 class was divided into four sections including a junior and amateur class with divisions A and B both being won by Sappho Ransan-Elliott. Jessica Browning was lying second after dressage in the junior section but moved up to take home the winner's rug after going clear cross country and only taking one rail down show jumping while the winners of the EvA80 Amateur class, Jill Severn and Felix, finished on their impressive first placed dressage score of 35.4.
There is no doubt that Berrima attracts those riders and horses who are just coming into the sport and this was clearly seen with around eighty entries in the EvA60 class. The open section was won by Karen Yanik, riding Granmayre Deon, who finished on her dressage score of 42.8. Dressage leader Andrew Haddad slipped back to finish second with Bella when despite going clear jumping wise on both cross country and show jumping he picked up four time penalties in the show jumping area to finish behind Karen. There were no such problems for Elise Diamond who won the Bowral Co-op junior section in fine style leading from start to finish, although 3.2 time penalties on cross country did leave them just 0.5 ahead of second placed Tess Shepherd. In a similar fashion local rider Jan Chesterfield-Evans, led the amateur section from start to finish riding Domenca, adding just 0.4 from cross country to her dressage score of 46.5.
The Berrima Committee make their policy regarding dogs quite clear to event goers
Keep a watch out for a gallery of happy snaps from Berrima Horse Trials coming later this week
