Leg 4 St James's Place Barbury Horse Trials - Day 2 Round Up
• Redemption day for Thomas Carlile (FR) and Upsilon who take the Leg 4 win.
• Gemma Tattersall (GBR) and Pamero 4 finish in second place.
• Chris Burton (AUS) and Polystar I take 3rd in Leg 4 and with it the top spot on the Series Leaderboard.
Show Jumping
Proving just as challenging as we thought it might, the first into the show jumping arena this morning, Matt Heath and One of a Kind gave us our first clear round, but they were not forthcoming after that. With just 7 riders leaving the coloured poles in the cups the top 10 looked very different after the 2nd phase.
Oliver Townend (GBR) and Cillnabradden Evo broke their run of clears in the show jumping when they had four poles down dropping them right out of Leg 4 contention. Gemma Tattersall and Pamero 4 put in a foot perfect clear round to climb into 3rdposition going into the cross country.
Joint leaders Liz Halliday-Sharp (USA) and Fernhill By Night dropped into 2nd place after the show jumping opening the door for favourites Tom Carlile (FRA) and Upsilon to hold their lead heading out onto the Cross Country this afternoon, which they did in style.
Cross Country
In an afternoon that saw “Mr Stickability”, Andrew Nicholson (NZ), part ways with Swallow Springs and less than 20 riders jump clear around the Capt Mark Phillips’ designed Cross Country course, the jumping proved just as significant as the time.
Riding a mature confidence-giving round, the Frenchman and Upsilon proved their class once again and re-affirmed their place as the new Kings of Barbury. Adding just 0.4 time penalties to their leading dressage to finish on top of the ERM podium Tom said,
“Upslion loves Barbury and I do too. Only three wins left and we can equal the legend, Andrew Nicholson. He did lose a bit of confidence at the Euros and he showed it again in Arville – I think he just needs a couple more nice runs like today before we think about anything else too big.”
Playing an important part in Brit Gemma Tattersall’s 2017 Series Win, Pamero 4 put in a classy performance in all three phases at Barbury to give Tattersall her first podium finish this year. With a speedy clear just 4 seconds over the time, Gemma and Pamero 4 finished on a score of 28.8 and left no room for leaders Tom Carlile and Upsilon to make any mistakes.
The fastest male event rider in the world, Chris Burton (AUS), didn’t disappoint out on course. Delivering a masterclass in Cross Country riding with an incredible clear inside the time the Australian and Trisha Rickard’s Polystar I finished on 34.8 and in 3rd place and with it taking the Series lead from Laura Collett.
However, Laura still collected some valuable Series points by finishing in 9th after a wonderful performance on another inexperienced young 3* horse by guiding 9 year old Dacapo home clear with just 10.6 time penalties.
“To come here as part of this field and produce what he has produced is incredible. He is a very exciting horse for the future.” Said Laura.
Giving the GBR World Equestrian Games selectors even more of a headache, European Team Gold Medallists, Tina Cook and Billy the Red and Nicola Wilson and One Two Many cemented their selection bids with wonderful clears around the tough 3* track finishing in 6th & 7th place respectively.
With Chris Burton sitting pretty at the top of the Series Leader Board after a foot perfect performance here at Barbury and all of the Series top 6 heading to Leg 5 at Haras de Jardy the race to take a place on the 2018 Series Podium is seriously hotting up.
The Event Rider Masters now heads to Leg 5 at Haras de Jardy, France. (14 & 15 July 2018).