William Fox-Pitt leads on Seacookie
William Fox-Pitt started the day well in Pau with a clear cross country round under time on his first horse Neuf des Coeurs. After a quick back massage by his physiotherapist he was back on course riding Seacookie TSF two hours later to repeat the effort and he finished the day by adding a third double clear round riding Cool Mountain. This is how he did it
Others didn’t find it quite so easy. The second rider on course, Andrew Nicholson had a refusal at Fence 20 on both Viscount George and later on Quimbo but steered Mr Cruise Control around with only 0.6 time penalties to finish in sixth place. Viscount George also had a problem two fences later and Andrew decided to call it a day with him while the young Spanish horse Quimbo dropped from fourth place to 34th.
Lucinda and Flying Finish unfortunately lost their lead
The overnight leader, Lucinda Fredericks also took a dive down the leader board with a refusal at Fence 25, the second lake. Both Lucinda’s Flying Finish and Chris Burton’s horse Tempranillo had a problem here, leaving them in 38th and 33rd place respectively; although Chris had a refusal here he came home with a very respectable time picking up only 3.2 time penalties.
Of the 75 starters, 19 were eliminated or retired on Pierre Michelet’s tricky course and only six riders, apart from William, rode the 6,720 metre course under the optimum time of 11 minutes 48 seconds. One of those was British rider Sarah Bullimore on My Last One (moved up from 49th to 16th) and only 0.8 penalties on her other horse Valentino V moved them up from 15th to 7th.
Sarah Bullimore and Valentino V showing great style at Fence 11
Another top British rider Francis Wittington on Sir Percival III had a very good run to move up from 54th to 17th with a double clear round.
“What a great day with Percy on the XC” tweeted Francis “No other like him. How very fortunate to ride such a XC machine”
The American riders also had a good day with Clark Montgomery riding Universe and Lynne Symansky riding Donner both enjoying double clear rounds. Lynne’s 10-year-old thoroughbred gelding had the fastest time of the day finishing 15 seconds within the time allowed and she is hoping that he will repeat his double clear show jumping round at Rolex Kentucky here tomorrow.
The most experienced American rider, ex-Aussie Phillip Dutton also enjoyed a great ride on his new ride Mr Medicott (below). Phillip and the experienced 14-year-old Irish Sport gelding set out on course lying in seventh place and climbed three places with a classy performance.
The pair cruised around Michelet's track to finish one second over the optimum time and add 0.4 time faults to their dressage score of 44.2. They will head into the show jumping in fourth place on a score of 44.6 just 3.1 points out of the lead.
"It was good; obviously he's a great horse. I'm still trying to get to know him and we were trying to go fast without making a silly mistake," remarked Phillip "This wouldn't be the ideal course for him but he got better and better as the course went on."
Just behind Phillip in fifth place is the young French rider Maxime Livio riding Cathar de Gamel (above). This combination picked up only 1.2 time penalties to finish on a score of 46 while his compatriots Donatien Schauly riding Pivoine des Touches and Rodolphe Scherer riding Makara de Montiege are also in the top ten.
Murray and Ninja - a super effort and hopefully more to come next year
The top placed Australian was Murray Lamperd riding Under the Clocks who had a great cross country ride to jump clear with only 4.4 time penalties and finish in 14th place. Sadly Murray has decided to withdraw ‘Ninja’ from the show jumping phase saying that he “was very jubilant on cross country and maybe in hindsight a little too energetic” and that they have decided in light of this to rest him tomorrow rather than show jump. Those who have been following Murray and Ninja’s progress during the past few months in his blog here will no doubt look forward to hearing what the next season holds for them
In the meantime all eyes are on William Fox-Pitt for tomorrow’s show jumping – can he make it one, two, three again tomorrow?
