Yesterday, at some point in the midst of 54 dressage tests and a swift descent into insanity, we had a chat with a certain Mr. Tim Price, who admitted that he reckoned this year’s Pau course was, well, just a bit underwhelming, and perhaps not the most inspired design he’s seen. In some ways, it’s easy to agree: course designer Pierre Michelet always relies heavily on very open stride patterns, wherein everything is built on a half-stride and it’s up to the rider to decide whether they’ll open up and make it happen in, say, three, or close down and squeeze in four – but you know, in your heart of hearts, that he’s trying to get you to find that three. That’s become the hallmark of the course here, and this year sees no changes whatsoever in that regard.
But of course, that doesn’t mean that the competition was easy by any stretch of the imagination, not least because expecting half-stride distances doesn’t make riding them any easier. Though Pau is dimensionally smaller – both in fence height and venue size – than the Burghleys and Marylands of the world, it’s never been a track that ought to be underestimated, because it exists on one end of the technicality spectrum and is, effectively, a revolving PhD in jumping five-star courses.
Certainly, the track took its toll on the leaderboard today. Overnight dressage leaders Bubby Upton and Cannavaro remain well in the hunt in second place, having added 4.8 time penalties to their 25.6, but the three-horse rider had what she wryly referred to as a “day of thirds – well, two-thirds and one-third!” Her first ride, the enormously experienced Cola, looked on flying form around most of the track, but when the pair came to fence 27ABCD, a trio of houses wending their way down a mound, it all fell apart, and Bubby suffered a non-injurious rider fall at the final element. After getting the job done – with one hairy moment – aboard Cannavaro, she once again left the start box, this time with the ten-year-old Its Cooley Time, who had been in sixth place overnight on his reroute from the European Championships.
Bubby Upton and Cola. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
But once again, fence 27ABCD was Bubby’s bogey. Riding with, perhaps, a point to prove, she and ‘Finn’ came down the mound at a formidable pace, and the young gelding looked to slightly lose purchase on the footing on his way down. He made an athletic effort at getting over the fence, slightly unbalancing Bubby in the process – and she’d likely have been able to get herself back in the saddle but for the fact that her horse was so game and genuine that he found his way to the final fence and skewed himself over it, neatly depositing a frustrated Bubby on the floor.
Those shock incidents, and Cannavaro’s time faults, opened the door for a new leader – but they certainly weren’t the only moments propping that door open. Tom McEwen and Oliver Townend had shared second place overnight on hugely experienced horses in Brookfield Quality and Ballaghmor Class, respectively, and both were hot contenders for the win – but both, ultimately, would see their days change in the second water complex, in Pau’s racecourse training centre infield. Each rider opted to take the direct route at this question, which came up fast after the ditch-and-brush fly fence at 20, and consisted of a brush-topped skinny into the water, a right-handed open corner in the water, and another brush-topped skinny on dry land. Each rider, too, found themselves with an additional 11 penalties on their score sheet after misjudging the stride to that open corner. And each rider, finally, struggled thereafter to make the distance to the final element; though Ballaghmor Class made it over, it wasn’t a particularly pleasant effort to watch, and Brookfield Quality opted to dip out to the side instead. Tom would subsequently put his hand up and retire; Oliver opted to continue, dropping from equal second to nineteenth.
And then there was poor Emily King. After giving her first ride, the debutant Jackpot, a steady, educational trip around his first five-star, picking up a green 20 along the way, she made a late-in-the-day start on the stalwart Valmy Biats, one of the favourites in the field. But she’d barely left the startbox when news filtered out through the tannoy that she’d fallen – and though nobody seems to quite agree on what happened, the closest we can come to an explanation is that experienced Val just left a bit of a leg at the second fence, pitching Emily out of the tack with no small amount of force. We’re pleased to report that she’s okay, though a bit sore.
So with all that housekeeping out of the way, we end the day with a new face at the top of the leaderboard – and we reckon she’ll be riding this high for a long time. Sarah Bullimore is no stranger to great success at the top level – she missed out on the win here back in 2017 by fourteen one-hundredths of a second with former top ride Reve du Rouet, and she’s previously been individual bronze medallist at the European Championships back in 2021 with homebred Corouet. But over the last few years, it’s felt a bit as though she’s had to wade through a career’s worth of rubbish luck all at once, and this year, in some ways, must have felt no different for Sarah thanks to a badly broken collarbone this summer.
The nine-year-old Corimiro has always carried high hopes, though, and when Sarah loves and believes in a horse, she’s not easily sidelined. Last year, the then-eight-year-old very nearly won Boekelo on his CCI4*-L debut; before that, he finished tenth in the prestigious eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S at Blenheim, and since, he’s finished third at the level at Belsay this spring, had another – admittedly abortive – crack at CCI4*-L at Bramham, where he retired, and then finished third at both Burgham CCI4*-S in July and on his return to Blenheim’s eight- and nine-year-old class last month.
Now, on his five-star debut, he’s the cross-country leader, having added nothing to his scorecard to climb from first-phase 11th on a score of 30.
“He’s an absolutely phenomenal horse to ride,” says Sarah. “He just feels like he’s been there and done it before, and he picks up the flags and he’s like, ‘Yeah, shut up, mom, I’ve got this!’ He was pretty much foot perfect. I was always going two strides off the bank at fence four, and I gave him a bit of a crap shot in, and he was like, ‘Yeah, I’ve still got this, shut up!’”
When the pair got to that influential racecourse water, Sarah wondered for a moment if they, too, might be caught out.
“I’d had an amazing shot [to the flyer at 20], and I’d sort of just dropped the reins and let him run to that ditch and brush,” she says. “And because I had a really lovely shot to it, he ballooned that — and then I was like, ‘shit, the water’s a bit close!’ on landing. I did think, ‘maybe that was a bit of a mistake letting him run to that’, but actually, he was great. He was like, ‘I’ve got it, you don’t need to pull too much, I can go through. It’s fine.’ He was brilliant.”
One of the key changes that Sarah has made is changing Corimiro’s bit from a pelham to a Barrie gag, a double-mouthpieced sliding gag that allows her to apply rein aids judiciously and sparingly and has been a roaring success since she first trialled it a few weeks ago.
“My first run back on him was Blenheim after I’d broken my collarbone, so I was possibly a little bit weaker anyway, but I did get to the end of the course there and think, actually, he sort of took the bit and ran through it. So I thought we needed a change. Coming to that around the corner to the ditch and brush at Blenheim, three or four from home, I was thinking I actually can’t pull any harder – like, that’s all I’ve got! And it just felt like he was just running through the distance. Never let anyone tell you horses don’t enjoy their job, because he loves it a bit too much sometimes!”
Sarah Bullimore and Corimiro. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Today, though, the lines of communication were open and clear, and he and Sarah were able to work in tandem to make the best of the tough course. But where one bit of kit was doing an excellent job for them, another completely failed midway around.
“I must have hit my stopwatch at five and a half minutes and so the next time I looked, it was still at five and a half,” laughs Sarah, who still somehow made the time. “He’s nine, and so I wasn’t ever going to be gunning at the time, but he’s got such a big stride and he was just travelling and jumping that I let him run. I don’t think I even pushed him once, and he just travels and jumps. He’s a phenomenal horse.”
Her first goal in coming here, she admits, was just to develop the young horse’s education for the future.
“I could have gone back to Boekelo, but he did that amazingly last year and actually nearly won, so he wasn’t going to gain any more experience from going back, other than going back and trying to win it. Because there wasn’t really any other four-stars to aim for, this was at the back of my mind, but I didn’t commit to it. It was kind of a case of, let’s see how he is, see how he’s feeling. But he is quite precocious. He came here for his education and experience. He’s ticked a box. I was a bit like, ‘oh, he’s nine, and if it all goes tits up, there’ll be people saying it was too young to take him’, but he came to the finish feeling so well and so ready for me. He was like ‘where do we go next?’ And I was like ‘no, no, you’re done now!’”
Like the tempestuous Corouet, who’s been the architect of so many of Sarah’s highs and lows, Corimiro is out of the exceptional Lilly Corinne, who last came to Pau herself back in 2017 when Sarah so nearly won.
“She’s been so good,” says Sarah. “We have thirteen offspring from her now, and we’ve got a lot waiting in the wings. We actually had twins by embryo transfer who are full siblings to this one earlier this year, so it’s all very exciting for the future.”
In pairing Lilly Corinne with Amiro Z, it seems that Sarah’s found the perfect recipe: the talent and the grit of the mare, plus a touch more rideability than the mercurial Balou de Rouet she favoured for Corouet.
“Corouet is amazing, but it does absolutely have to be his idea, and if it’s not his idea, and if you tell him to do something, he properly gets annoyed by it,” laughs Sarah. “Whereas Coromiro, he’s still dominant – I mean, I gave him a little lunge this morning, and he was actually really quite lazy, and I said, ‘Come on, have a canter.’ And he swings his head like, ‘don’t tell me what to do!’ And you’re like, ‘for goodness sake!’, but he takes it on board. He’s dominant, and he’s like, ‘don’t touch me there. Don’t tell me that.’ But he will take it on board and do it and listen. So it’s more of a partnership, whereas Corouet is sometimes like, ‘no.’”
Whatever the special sauce is, it’s clear that Sarah’s got it sussed with Corimiro, and is back with a bang herself – even if it took her a little while to believe it this afternoon.
“I’m still like — I’m fairly speechless,” she beams. “You know, I was chuffed to bits with the way he went. And then after my round, I hadn’t seen anybody go. [My husband] Brett had just gone to watch the last couple in the riders tent, and I came on and literally saw the last two and the results came up and they’re like ‘yeah, Sarah you’re in the lead!’ I’m like, ‘what?!’ It’s just disbelief, really, because I came to educate him and give him a good round, and it’s amazing. It’s actually really emotional, having bred him — it means so much. He is a phenomenal, phenomenal horse. And I just would like to show that to everybody and prove how good he is, because he is awesome.”
Bubby Upton and Cannavaro. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Bubby Upton sits just 0.4 behind Sarah and Corimiro on the former showjumper Cannavaro, who added 4.8 time penalties in his mid-day round to reclaim an otherwise frustrating day for the young rider.
“It was a day of thirds, I guess, or two-thirds, one-third,” says Bubby. “Cannavaro, who’s obviously the reason why I’m here [at the press conference], was just amazing. He dug so deep. He’s eighteen years old, and he’s been out of the top level of the sport for over two and a half years now, so for him to go around like he went round was, to be honest, a complete testament to our partnership and his heart, because he’s got no reason to keep digging away. He’s only got 20% blood in him and it takes a lot out of him across country, essentially, because he puts in maximum effort.”
He is, she continues, “a completely different horse to my other two, who are much more economical and efficient. Cola was giving me a kind of classic Cola ride the whole way around. He was just flying, making it feel pretty easy on not an easy course. I’m not sure what else I could have done differently with him at the fence that he fell at, whereas on my last horse, I definitely let him down. I made a mistake and rode him a bit too much like he was Cannavaro, and I didn’t trust the engine that I still had underneath me. We made up too much ground and got underneath the BC element, and then he still tried to jump D and I was around his neck. So I’m gutted for him because he should be jumping for the win tomorrow, but I have no doubt he’ll have his day.”
Tim Price and Jarillo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Tim Price, also well-mounted with three rides this week, stepped up from fourth to third place with the eleven-year-old Jarillo after adding 4.4 time penalties. The expressive young horse, who was ninth here last year with a clear round on the final day, was the quickest of Tim’s three rides – but only just. He also sits 11th overnight on Happy Boy, who added 5.2 time penalties, and 23rd on the former Georgie Campbell ride and five-star debutant Global Quest, who added 6.4.
“For me, it almost took three goes — and I still didn’t quite get it right — in terms of the time,” says Tim. “Getting off the twisty bit to get onto the racecourse on, or just up on, your minutes was required, because even out on the racecourse, there was no real opportunity to really make up your time. I remember, in years gone by, I’ve been out there and I’ve made up 30 seconds on a good galloping horse, and it wasn’t like that this time. We had things to slow us down everywhere. So it was more about a good rhythm, being a little bit brave at some of the early fences with the distances to do one less, or at least, come a little bit faster and have a horse that was adjustable, and then just keep travelling at the galloping fences and just leave as few strides out there as possible to give the time a chance.”
“But,” he continues, “it’s typical Pau: it’s always challenging here. It presents as a course that is a little bit underwhelming — dimensions and things — but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy course, as we always show in each year. You’ve got to go fast, and that heightens the risk element and it’s always a big challenge, whether you’re on experienced horse or young horse.”
“Pierre’s obviously been designing here for many years, and I always remember when I first came to Europe going to, like, Saumur and places like that. Back then, he would do one and a half strides in those lines. Now it’s three and a half, which encourages you to do three, but I remember some one and a halfs! What it’s done for the sport is that it encourages you to ride forward, and in a safe way. And it looks great too, when riders ride in that way. That’s good, classic cross country riding.”
In the aftermath of his round, Tim reckoned he might have found a few more seconds to burn – which makes the prospect of Jarillo’s pending twelve-year-old season even more formidable.
“I underestimated the length of his stride,” he says. “I think I can ride him better in the future, where I just let him gallop and see some bigger distances, and I’m very excited about that. This was his third five-star, and he’s an amazing horse. At about eight minutes at the last water — well, just before — when I thought, ‘this is the best he’s gone’, and I decided to go long there, thinking that I would be able to just maintain, but after the last water, he just petered it out on me a little bit. It’s what he’s done before, as he’s learned the job, but a lot earlier in the course. So I’m super proud of him. He was great, but it was more about riding a tired horse home from the last minute, minute and a half. But he still jumped well, and we got home, and it’s the fastest he’s been on a five-star, so I can’t be unhappy with him at all.”
Benjamin Massie and Filao de Perle. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
The home side had plenty to celebrate tonight with clears inside the time for Benjamin Massie and Filao de Perle and Astier Nicolas and Dirty Old Town, who climbed from equal 21st to fourth and fifth, respectively, after the game efforts of their ten-year-old horses.
Astier Nicolas and Dirty Old Town. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Great Britain’s David Doel and Galileo Nieuwmoed put an odd year, with crashing falls at corners at both Badminton and Burghley, firmly in the rearview mirror, adding nothing to their first-phase score of 32.4 to climb from 26th to sixth, while New Zealand’s Jesse Campbell moved from 28th to seventh when adding just 0.4 aboard the talented but previously occasionally inconsistent Cooley Lafitte.
David Doel and Galileo Nieuwmoed. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Tom Jackson and Plot Twist B, too, orchestrated a huge climb, moving from 31st to eighth with one of the day’s six clears inside the time.
Grace Taylor and Game Changer. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Adding a scant 3.6 time penalties to their timesheet didn’t have any negative bearing on Boyd Martin and Cooley Nutcracker’s place on the leaderboard: they were able to stay in tenth place, and go into tomorrow’s finale within a rail of the lead, on a two-phase score of 33.5. That sees them neck and neck with fellow countryman Grace Taylor and Game Changer, who sit on the same score but take overnight ninth for being closer to the optimum time.
There’s every chance, though, that if not for a bit of a hair-raising incident on course, Boyd and ‘Bali’ could have sliced a few of those time penalties away – and if they’d done so, and finished with a clean sheet, they’d have actually taken the lead.
“It was an exciting round! Unfortunately, one of the road crossings I did, they let the ropes down, so I nearly ran over some crazy French fans,” laughs Boyd.
But, he says, “I had a fantastic round on [Bali]. I feel like I’m still getting to know him, and looking back on it, there was a number of fences where I could have taken a bit more of a chance — I probably held him back a little bit here and there. But in general, he gave me a fantastic round. He’s very courageous cross-country horse that really didn’t take a second look at anything.”
Boyd has had the ride on the Nutcracker Syndicate’s gelding, who represented the US last summer at the Paris Olympics with Liz Halliday, throughout this season, and their first five-star together represents a significant milestone in their fledgling partnership.
Boyd Martin and Cooley Nutcracker. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
“We’re still figuring out our partnership, and I think this is a great step forward after tackling this course,” says Boyd. “I think coming into next year, it’s very exciting, because now I have a good understanding of how to ride him at speed at these big five-star tracks.”
He is, he continues, “a very fast horse. It’s trying to get an understanding of judging how close to the fence I can slow down and how I can accelerate and go for the longer stride, and cut out strides between fences. He’s a very game horse.”
Though Boyd was meant to be here with two rides – the fan favourite Fedarman B missed the trip due to an eleventh hour minor setback – he’s delighted to have had the opportunity to cross the pond again to end the season.
“I love riding these five-star tracks — they’ve all got a different flavour,” he says. “It’s a completely different competition to last weekend at Maryland, and it’s also like trying to become masterful at riding all different types of courses, different styles of riding and different ways of riding over the different types of courses.
“I think here at Pau, it’s very twisting and turningm back and forth accuracy questions and a lot of three-and-a-half stride distances where you could go on four or three. So it’s about trying to get an understanding whether to go on the long distance or the short distances, whereas Maryland it’s just big jumps on big distances.”
Sam Ecroyd and Boleybawn Lecrae. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
One of the rides of the day was delivered by Great Britain’s Sam Ecroyd, who catapulted himself up the leaderboard from 37th to 12th after delivering the first clear round inside the time of the day with level debutant Boleybawn Lecrae. Though another five riders would join them in adding nothing to their first-phase score, they would still end the day with the fastest time of the day – some 18 seconds inside the 11:06 optimum time, despite never looking rushed at all on course.
Cosby Green and Highly Suspicious. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
British-based US rider Cosby Green had a successful day with both her rides, moving up from 32nd to 15thwith Highly Suspicious after adding 2 time penalties, and from 38th to 26th with Jos Ufo de Quidam, with whom she added 7.6. Emily Hamel and the spring-heeled Corvett boinged their way around to a clear and 7.2 time penalties, moving them from 42nd place to 25th and getting them ever closer to achieving their goal of completing all the Northern Hemisphere’s CCI5* events.
Emily Hamel and Corvett. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
US Olympian Tiana Coudray had an up and down day: her first ride, the experienced Cancaras Girl, slipped on the flat on one of the tight turns between fences and the pair went down, though were totally unhurt. Her next ride, the exciting debutant D’Artagnan, completed with 14.8 time penalties and a green 20 picked up at the racecourse water complex, which looked like a genuine, inexperienced moment. They slipped down from 24th to 36th overnight.
Another British-based US rider also ran into trouble on course; Jenny Caras and Sommersby hacked back to the stables after picking up three surprising 20s in different places across the course, ultimately taking their third, and elimination, at that influential racecourse water.
43 horses and riders will go forward to the final horse inspection, and the subsequent showjumping phase, tomorrow – and we’ll be treated to even more Pau scheduling weirdness where both of them are concerned. The clocks go back tonight in continental Europe and the UK, which is a little treat for everyone, and the final horse inspection doesn’t start until a quite remarkable 11.45 a.m. (10.45 a.m. GMT/6.45 a.m. EST). Then, showjumping will begin at 14.45 p.m. (13.45 GMT/9.45 a.m. EST), which probably means we’ll do the prizegiving in the near-dark, as usual. Whatever; we’re thrilled about this lie-in, frankly, and about the single rail that covers the top ten, which ensures tomorrow will continue to be just as exciting as today has been.
Join us tomorrow for plenty more from Pau, and in the meantime, if you can’t get enough of the action, you can reread a full-day play-by-play on Cheg’s expansive and entertaining live updates, and you should be able to rewatch all the action by now on Pau TV, too. Until next time: Go Eventing!
The top ten after cross-country at Les 5 Etoiles de Pau.
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