Philippa Cross
The 12 year old ex-racehorse Scoop De Ferbert gave his rider, Philippa Cross the biggest win of her career so far at the Barefoot Retreats Burnham Market International today
The four Intermediate classes were packed with big names in eventing and the three other sections were won by Piggy French, Nicola Wilson and Izzy Taylor but it was the 28 year old local rider Philippa and Scoop De Ferbert who won the Intermediate Section J
They started with a score of 32.70 in the dressage which put them in a competitive position at the start of the day. Brazil’s Carlos Parro had a good lead ahead of most of the field with a score of 25 on Sir Digby but a stop at Fence 5, which caused many of the problems during these classes, put them out of contention and Philippa, having show jumped clear, added just 5.6 time penalties on cross country
Philippa credits much of the improvement to her recent training with Judy Bradwell
“We had a very quick run on cross country – he’s an amazingly bold and careful horse so I was able to push him on at everything but that’s a new thing, we haven’t been able to do that before. Last year I had time penalties pretty much everywhere but last year I went to Judy Bradwell’s for eight weeks and his rideability has improved so much”
Philippa Cross
Piggy French not only won the Intermediate Section K on Carnival March but also took third in the same class on Castletown Clover, fourth on Templepatrick Cooley and sixth on Graf Cavalier in the Intermediate J and then finished the day with a win in the Advanced Section N on Quarrycrest Echo
Tina Cook led this class on Thursday afternoon on Billy The Red with a score of 27.9 but Sir Mark Todd on Leonidas II (27.1), Tim Price on Ringwood Sky Boy (26.2) and Oliver Townend on MHS King Joules (27) moved ahead of her during the last of the dressage this morning. Tim, Oliver and Tina all show jumped clear, as did Pippa Funnell on Maja’s Hope, but Tina and Pippa both fell foul of the Fairfax Double of Corners at 5AB, along with several others that picked up penalties or were eliminated
Australia's Kevin McNab and Willunga took seventh place in the OI Sec L (above) and Emma Hobday finished fifth in the Intermediate J on Shadow Puppet (below)
