Piggy March and Brookfield Quality. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Piggy March and Laura Collett reigned victorious at the Childeric Saddles Little Downham International CCI4*-S, claiming a section each after an action-packed second day at the Ely Eventing Centre.

Piggy added a fourth international victory to her 2020 tally, taking Section P with John and Chloe Perry and Alison Swinburn’s Brookfield Quality — known at home, quite delightfully, as Nervous Norris. She moved up from fourth place after dressage to the eventual win after adding just four time penalties across the country to a first-phase score of 29.2, giving the horse his first four-star win on just his second start at the level.

“I was delighted with Brookfield Quality,” she said. “I have to get my brave pants on with him because he’s a big-striding horse and he’s not very easy to adjust, and so to go fast has taken us a few runs together. I can’t afford to make mistakes on him, so I really have to get myself in gear and make sure I’m on my A-game.”

For Piggy, the influential Jonathan Clissold track – which saw a 62% clear rate across the sections and was designed with Pierre Michelet’s twisty, technical test at Pau in mind – will have played a crucial role in the development of the 11-year-old gelding.

“He’s a big, scopey horse with lots of stride, and he really wants to do the job – but he’s still fairly inexperienced at this level, so I was just delighted with how he went and how confident he’s finished this round,” she said. “This track, I think, is brilliant – you really have to get stuck in. It’s very educational for them but you’ve got to make it happen. There’s lots of questions out there and it’s beefy enough. I’m just delighted with him – winning was a bonus today.”

Piggy March and Fonbherna Lancer. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Piggy enjoyed a successful two days aboard her three other rides, taking second place in section P with the former Emily King ride Dargun, who added 12.8 time penalties, and second in section Q with Pau-bound Brookfield Inocent – the only horse to finish inside the time – and third with new ride Fonbherna Lancer.

Laura Collett and London 52 clear the barge – a legacy fence, fittingly, from London 2012. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Laura Collett took section Q aboard her own, Karen Bartlett, and Keith Scott’s London 52. Like Piggy, she added just four time penalties to her first-phase score – a 24.4 that saw her lead from pillar to post. This win marks a final run before the eleven-year-old gelding – who also won Boekelo CCI4*-L and Chatsworth’s Event Rider Masters leg in 2019 – makes his CCI5* debut at Les 5 Etoiles de Pau in a fortnight.

“All year – even through lockdown – he’s felt like a totally different horse,” she said, recalling the mid-season blips that marked his record before his end-of-season victory last year.

“The best thing that could have happened was being able to take him to Boekelo – I just felt like we both needed it. We put it to bed and he’s come out stronger, both physically and mentally. Now it feels like there’s light at the end of the tunnel. he so believes in himself now; he’s taken a breath and realised how good he is. He just feels phenomenal – I actually get goosebumps, I’m so lucky to ride him. I have to pinch myself!”

Laura Collett and London 52. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Laura, too, was full of praise for the track, which gave competitors a chance to tackle questions of a similar technicality and feel to 2020’s only CCI5* at Pau.

“I walked the course here and thought the ground was great on cross-country and there were a lot of questions. It was really nice because, to put the horses to one side, I felt like I hadn’t really got stuck in and ridden a proper course this year,” she said. “I was really glad that it had a real Pau-type feel with skinnies on mounds and blind turns and really committed distances. It was so nice to get stuck in and have nice rides around. It made you think as a rider, and they did a phenomenal job to put it on and build such a cracking course.”

Mollie Summerland and Charly van ter Heiden. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Laura also finished fifth in this section aboard Mr Bass, who joins London 52 in heading to Pau in two weeks’ time. Mollie Summerland and Charly van ter Heiden, one of Britain’s most successful young four-star partnerships, narrowly beat them to finish fourth, inspiring plans for a long-awaited five-star debut.

“He was a really good boy — he felt really relaxed in his dressage and really rideable,” says Mollie. “The showjumping was causing enough trouble, and he jumped really well out of the mud, so I was pleased with that. On cross-country he was just so genuine — he makes it all feel really easy. I’d watched the final water and knew it was causing quite a lot of trouble, so I knew that might be difficult when I rode into it, but he was great — and he’d actually lost a shoe somewhere on course before that!”

That influential final water, which featured a triple brush A element, a quite colossal brush on a mound and a tricky bending line — punctuated by two craftily-placed Christmas trees — to a final triple brush caused its fair share of problems, though mistakes were well spread around the course.

Austin O’Connor and Colorado Blue. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Despite the challenges of international eventing in a pandemic, the CCI4*-S hosted a global field, with Ireland’s Austin O’Connor and Colorado Blue finishing third in section P and Japan’s Kazuma Tomoto and Brookpark Vikenti finishing fourth. British team stalwart Harry Meade rounded out the top five in this section with the inexperienced but exciting Cavalier Crystal, who’ll be aimed at Bramham next year.

“She hasn’t done an Advanced and has just done a CCI4*-S at Burgham [in August], so this was a step up,” says Harry. “It was a really good test for her and she jumped a lovely double clear, which is a really good stepping stone for her. They had to work hard for it out there, and all my horses went out there and thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Despite adverse weather conditions that forced the cancellation of national classes on Monday and Tuesday, Little Downham delivered a tough but fair test and remarkably good conditions. The new CCI4*-S fixture was run behind closed doors in accordance with government regulations this year, but the organising team – headed by Tina Ure – looks forward to welcoming spectators to this exciting new addition to the calendar next year.

The final top ten in section P.

The final top ten in section Q.

Little Downham CCI4*-S: Website | Live Scores | Ride Times | Live-Stream

Piggy March and Dargun. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Piggy March has taken a decisive lead in the Childeric Saddles Little Downham International CCI4*-S on the first day of dressage, taking top spot in both sections and holding fort in the top five with each of her four rides. This marks the very first CCI4*-S to be held at the popular Cambridgeshire venue, which hosts a full calendar of British Eventing competitions and training opportunities throughout the year.

Though the entry list was hit by a spate of withdrawals following the shock news that GAIN horse feeds had found a contaminant in a batch of feed, but even so, 77 horse-and-rider combinations produced tests for the assembled ground jury today across sections P and Q. Riding the syndicate-owned Dargun, Piggy delivered a 26.4 to lead the way in section P, which was presided over by judges Nikki Herbert and Richard Baldwin. Her strong mark was most closely challenged by Kitty King and her 2019 Bramham winner Vendredi Biats, who end the day on 27.3 after a clean test punctuated by some minor cheeky moments.

“We had a few little wobbles and some basic mistakes – and he was quite spooky about the flowers and the wind,” Piggy says. “But on the whole, I was pleased enough in the conditions. I’ve entered here for a bit of experience with this horse; it’ll be our first time at the level together, so I’ll be interested in how our day goes while still trying to be competitive. It’ll be building blocks, but we’ll give it a good go!”

Brookfield Quality contributes to a dominating day for Piggy March. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Piggy also sits fourth ahead of tomorrow’s jumping phases with the relatively inexperienced Brookfield Quality, owned by John and Chloe Perry and Alison Swinburn, who posted an impressive 29.2 to redeem himself after some green mistakes in his test at last month’s Burnham Market CCI4*-L.

“We call him Nervous Norris at home, because he’s a bit of an odd character,” she laughs. “I was really happy with him today. He’s a new horse at the level – a lovely horse with fabulous movement – and his changes were a bit green today, which was the only disappointing thing about the test. The whole weekend is a learning experience for him, and we’ll hopefully have a fun day tomorrow.

Ever the pragmatist, Piggy wryly muses: “At least I halted square with this one – I didn’t with the other horses!”

Kazuma Tomoto and Brookpark Vikenti. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

She was usurped for third place by former student and young Irish talent Susie Berry, who produced a 28.3 with Helen Caton’s John the Bull, formerly ridden by Jonty Evans, while Japan’s Kazuma Tomoto and his Blenheim runner-up Brookpark Vikenti round out the top five overnight on 29.9.

“I’m thrilled with him – he has it all there, but that’s the first time I’ve had it all together in the ring,” says Susie. “I’ve put quite a lot of pressure on him, because he’s been so competitive at the level below. At the last two four-stars we’ve had some silly mistakes – mainly me! – but this time, we had a clear round.”

While Section P will head directly into showjumping tomorrow morning, a further twenty combinations will come forward to present a test to judges Ann Bostock and Judy Hancock in Section Q tomorrow – though here, too, Piggy’s domination of the first phase will be tough to overthrow. She sits in first and second place, taking the lead with John and Chloe Perry and Alison Swinburn’s Brookfield Inocent on 25 and sitting second aboard the Lancer Stud’s Fonbherna Lancer, who scored a 26.2.

Kevin McNab and Scuderia 1918 A Best Friend. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Kazuma Tomoto finds himself in the top five once again in Section Q, earning a respectable 30.2 with Bernadette Utopia for third, while Australia’s Kevin McNab holds fourth on 31.9 with the Pau-bound Scuderia 1918 A Best Friend after revising his warm-up tactic with the ‘big but anxious’ gelding.

“His Burnham Market test wasn’t his best, and we’d been trying something new there – we experimented with doing a bit less and keeping him a bit fresher going in,” he explains. “But for a big horse, he does get a bit anxious, and so now we’re back to the original plan and just letting him do a little bit more so he can settle into it.”

Eliza Stoddart and Priorspark Precocious sit in overnight fifth on 32. Tomorrow’s morning dressage session will see several exciting names vie for a competitive slot atop the leaderboard, including Ireland’s Cathal Daniels and Dr Sarah Hughes’ Barrichello, Laura Collett and her two Pau-bound stars Mr Bass and London 52, and young talent Mollie Summerland and Charly van ter Heiden. Dressage will recommence at 8.30 a.m., with showjumping under way from 8:15 a.m. and cross-country starters’ orders at 9.00 a.m. local time (4.00 a.m. Eastern). The pivotal cross-country phase, designed by Jonathan Clissold, will be live-streamed in its entirety by Horse&Country TV.

The top ten in Section P at the culmination of dressage.

The top ten in section Q at the end of day one.

Little Downham CCI4*-S: Website | Live Scores | Ride Times | Live-Stream