After participating in the Falconry Display in the main arena, Harry was suffiently enthused about Gatcombe again to come and watch some more dressage. We managed to see the on-form Andrew Nicholson’s beautiful test on Avebury which scored 28, good enough to slip into second place behind Mary on Imperial Cavalier.
We did see Emily Baldwin on Drivetime, and her test was also lovely – she now lies 3rd overnight, just half a penalty behind Andrew. Sadly we weren’t at a good vantage point to take pictures at that point, we were at the burger van!
Chips! The only thing that can make dressage bearable!
Caroline Ryan-Bell was doing a nice test on Rathmoyle King until he had a bit of a tizzy in the transition from walk to canter, right in front of the judges at C, and they now sit back in 35th place on a score of 37.1. I saw so many horses almost lose their walk around the corner as they anticipated the strike-off to canter at C, and some managed to contain the energy better than others, hate that feeling!
Frances Whittington was experimenting with varying warm-up times for Easy Target, and didn’t get it quite right this afternoon, but after a stunning test at Barbury where they finished 4th in the CIC ***, he told me he feels fairly confident he’ll be able to finesse it by Burghley, where he’ll also be riding Sir Percival. Easy Target will do a combined test at Highclere before then.
We missed Jock Paget’s test on Clifton Promise, but it must have been good because he scored 30.4, just .3 more than he did on Clifton Lush to sit in 5th and 6th places. It’s doubtful that Promise will run cross country tomorrow as he has nothing to prove in that phase, and he’ll have one more slightly easier run before Burghley. I saw Laura Collett up by the arenas and she told me that Ginger May Killinghurst had actually felt a bit fresh this afternoon as this was her first outing since a 12th place at Luhmuhlen, but she still holds on to 7th place overnight. She’s another horse that’s headed to Burghley, along with Noble Bestman for Laura, while of course she’ll take Rayef to the European Championships at Luhmuhlen in a couple of weeks. I just had word from Rachel at Uptown Eventing who tells me that in all probability, Laura’s team mate Mary King will probably not be running overnight leader Imperial Cavalier cross country tomorrow either. Uptown Eventing of course sourced Imperial Cavalier for Mary’s owners, as well as Mary’s 2nd placed Rolex Kentucky 2011 ride, Fernhill Urco. As the sun makes a last hurrah, we’re all watching the Express Eventing Dressage to Music in the main arena, not a bad way to spend a saturday evening, but really excited about tomorrow. Can’t wait to bring you more from Gatcombe, thank you for reading, and go Championship Eventing!
