William Fox-Pitt and Clifton Signature
An Eventful Life is filming all competitors on cross country at Barbury International 2017 (except ERM) - find out more here
William Fox-Pitt riding Clifton Signature leads the CIC3* Section B dressage after the first day of competition at the St. James’s Place Barbury International Horse Trials.
William, who recently took over the ride on Clifton Signature from Jonathan Paget, performed a lovely dressage to score 40.7 penalties but obviously feels that there is a sub-40 test lurking in there
“It’s early days as this is my first dressage on Clifton Signature at this level. He is a lovely horse and I think there is more to come from him in this phase. I am very happy with that and it’s great to be here at Barbury”.
The last rider of the session, Oliver Townend riding Note Worthy moved into second place on 42.9 penalties while Andrew Nicholson, the five times consecutive winner of the CIC3* competition at Barbury, riding Swallow Springs is in third place just one mark behind on 43.9.
Nana Dalton on Elite Syncopation are a little further behind on 46.5 but this was a personal best for them at this level, Australia’s Bill Levett on Shannondale Titan is in fifth on 46.6 and Ben Hobday would be cursing an error of course included in his score of 48 on the 10 year old Ciletto H in sixth place
Bill Levett and Shannondale Titan
We’ll be keeping an eye out for Murray Lamperd’s Under the Clocks in this class who is going well with Tiana Coudray with a recent 5th place at Bramham. They are currently in equal 14th place on 55.5 after 29 of the 61 riders completed their tests today and some top riders coming up tomorrow including Laura Collett first out on Mr Bass, William returning with the eight year old Little Fire at his first 3* start, Tina Cook on Billy The Red and Tim Price on Ringwood Sky Boy
Blyth Tait and Havanna Vant Castanaeof
Tim currently leads the CIC2* Section E on Xavier Faer (42.3) and there is a definite Antipodean feel to the top six of this class with Blyth Tait (NZL) and Havanna Vant Castanaeof (42.7) sharing equal place with Britain’s Emily King on Walitze F Vejgard (42.7), Australia’s Emma McNab in fourth place on Brookfield Quality (43.9), Britain’s Tom McEwen on Joy Ride in fifth and Andrew Nicholson on Qwanza in sixth. Qwanza hasn’t had a run since Badminton so Andrew must be easing the mare back into competition gently here and another interesting combination to note in this class is Canada’s Rebecca Howard on Lucinda Fredericks’ nine year old stallion Britannia’s Mail, currently in 12th place
Chris Burton and Lawtown Boy
Australia also leads the CIC2* Section D with Chris Burton on one of his up and coming stars owned Carolyn Townsend and Sue Lawson, the seven year old Lawtown Boy. They lead on 37.4, just a whisker ahead of Emily King on Cooley Currency (37.5) and in Tim Price in third on Cooley Showtime (39.8)
Japan has been showing some real promise this season and Kazuma Tomoto is in fourth place on the nine year old Brookpark Vikenti who did well at this level at Burnham Market. New Zealand’s Dan Jocelyn with his Aachen selected horse Grovine De Reve are in fifth while the two experienced stars Mary King and Andrew Nicholson share sixth place.
Emma McNab and Brookfield Inocent
In the CIC2* Section E Sweden’s Ludwig Svennerstal and Box Leo are in the box seat with a score of 39.5 while Emma McNab is once again up there on Brookfield Inocent in second place (40.8) and the USA’s Shea Mackenna on Landisio is third (41.6). Both Brookfield Inocent and Brookfield Quality are usually ridden by Emma’s husband Kevin who is currently injured and she is doing a great job
Chris Burton is also doing well in this class with Limited Edition IV in fourth place (43.1) - these 2* classes are going to be great class to watch for future equine talent!
Andrew Nicholson - the King of Barbury is back in 2017
The St. James’s Place Barbury International Horse Trials continues tomorrow with the CIC3* and CIC2* dressage, British Eventing competitions and also continues on Saturday the 8th and Sunday the 9th July while Leg 3 of the 2017 Event Rider Masters also kicks off tomorrow. The £50,000 ERM competition features forty of the world’s best event riders, representing eleven nations including the King of Barbury, Andrew Nicholson but he has some strong competition in Thomas Carlile and Oliver Townend, among others
Frenchman Thomas Carlile and the grey stallion Upsilon have made the trip across the channel this weekend for their fourth ERM appearance. This combination has secured podium finishes in all of their previous ERM starts, including a win in the sixth leg in the 2016 series. Bar a mistake in the show jumping at Leg 1 earlier this year, they have proved very strong across all three phases, finishing in the top five in over 90% of their international starts. Thomas and Upsilon are strongly fancied for another podium finish this weekend, if not the top spot.
Oliver Townend (GBR) arrives at Barbury yet to score 2017 series points. However, Oliver is an outstanding series performer, having won two ERM legs last year as well as being crowned the overall 2016 series champion. His ride this weekend is Cooley Master Class who has been lightly campaigned at international level, but has won his last two CIC3* starts. No doubt Oliver will be hungry to score valuable series points this weekend to maintain his ERM series crown.
Gemma Tattersall and Quicklook at Chatsworth
Gemma Tattersall (GBR) partners Pamero 4, a ride she has recently acquired. Gemma became the first female rider to win a leg of the series at Chatsworth in May with Quick Look V. If she can deliver similar form to her previous ERM performances she could become the first competitor in the whole series to win multiple legs riding different horses.
Marcio George (BRA) currently sits in second on the 2017 ERM table with 37 points behind the series leader Sarah Cohen (GBR) on 51 points. He holds the lowest ever dressage score at Barbury of 32.5, which he set last year with Lissy Mac Wayer. This weekend Marcio rides Coronel MCJ, who makes his third consecutive appearance in the 2017 series, having finished ninth and eighth respectively in Legs 1 and 2.
American competitors Hannah Sue-Burnett and Lauren Kiefer both make their ERM debut this weekend. Hannah rides one of the most experienced horses in the field, RF Demeter, who has made forty-five international starts in ten years; although this combination are new to each other this season. Lauren rides the nine year old D A Duras.
Remarkably the double Olympic Champion Sir Mark Todd (NZL) has yet to make an impact on the series. This weekend Todd rides his 2016 Olympic horse Leonidas II. The rider of the 20th century boasts strong previous form at Barbury and is certain to have his sights set firmly on a podium finish this weekend.
All the action from Barbury Leg 3 can be viewed live and for free at eventridermasters.tv
