Being an Olympic year, we’re going to be keeping an especially close eye on all major international competitions throughout 2020. Here’s a recap of this weekend’s four-star competitions around the globe.
While all eyes were on Red Hills International here in the U.S. (catch up on EN’s live coverage here), other big ticket four-stars took place at Barroca International H.T.in Portugal and Tonimbuk International in Australia.
Photo courtesy of Horse Sport Ireland.
🇵🇹Barroca International H.T. (March 4-8)🇵🇹
Irish riders stormed the top of the Barroca d’Alva CCI4*-L leaderboard, with Tipperary’s Padraig McCarthy taking the top spot with Leonidas II. Padraig, the individual and team silver medalist at the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon, and the 16-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Landos x Nairobi II, by Parco XX) owned by Diane Brunsden and Peter Cattell won on a score of 39.1.
Leonidas II is a relatively new ride for Padraig, as the horse arrived at Padraig’s yard after his former longtime rider Mark Todd’s retirement late last summer. With Sir Mark, he finished 7th at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and enjoyed top finishes at Badminton and Burghley. We reported on where the rest of Sir Mark’s upper-level string ended up after his retirement earlier this year.
Also from Ireland: Galway’s Cathal Daniels took third place in the CCI4*-L with OLS King Aragon, a 2011 Irish Sport Horse gelding (Samgemjee x Just Beauty Queen, by Seamanship) owned by Michelle Nelson and Kieran Connors; Michael Ryan was 5th with Barnahown Corn Hill; Austin O’Connor was 12th with Colorado Blue.
Japanese riders were out in force as well, with Kenki Sato finishing 2nd with Shanaclough Contagora and withdrawing Vick du Gisors JRA after dressage. We were looking forward to seeing how Toshiyuki Tanaka was getting on with Quarrycrest Echo, Piggy French’s former WEG and European Championships partner with whom she finished 4th at Kentucky last year. EN reported on that transfer to Team Japan, completed in advance of the Jan. 15 deadline for the Tokyo Olympics, here. We’ll have to wait a bit longer, though, as it looks like “Red” was spun at the first horse inspection. The pair finished 21st in the CCI3*-S at Barroca last month.
Karin Donckers of Belgium, who will be looking toward Tokyo as the top ranked unqualified NOC athlete for the South Western Europe region, finished 4th with Leipheimer Van’t Verahof. Sweden’s Philippa Magnusson and Cesar rounded out the top five.
Toshiyuka won the CCI4*-S division with Talma D’Allou on a final penalty score of 33.4, while Australia’s Kevin McNab nabbed the #2 and #3 spots with Scuderia 1918 Don Quidam and Scuderia 1918 A Best Friend respectively.
Barroca d’Alva: Website, Results, Facebook
Photo by Click Capture Photography via the Tonimbuk Horse Trials Inc. Facebook page.
🇦🇺Tonimbuk International (March 6-8)🇦🇺
Cardinia Shire Tonimbuk International in West Gippsland, Australia, made a return to the international eventing calendar this year after being cancelled due to bushfires in 2019. They’ve since rebuilt their cross country course, a significant portion of which was lost in bushfires one week prior to their scheduled 2019 event. This week’s event featuring new tracks through the bush and many new fences under the expertise of course designer John Nicholson.
This year’s event faced a polar opposite challenge — an incredible amount of rain in the week preceding the event. The cross country team had their work cut out for them, adding gravel and mulch and moving jumps to make the best of soggy footing.
Once again this year an interstate competitor took the win in the top class, the Oven’s Junction CCI4*-S. It was the four-star debut of Steph Hann from South Australia and True Celebre, her own 17-year-old off-track Thoroughbred (Peintre Celebre x Dalzing, by Blazing Sword), and they shuffled around the leaderboard throughout the weekend — 2nd after dressage on a score of 31.0, to 5th after dropping a rail in show jumping, ultimately landing in 1st after cross country when Amanda Ross and Rob Palm withdrew before cross country, and Megan Jones retired on course. The pair had 19.6 time penalties to win on a score of 58.2.
Keep an eye on An Eventful Life for interviews, videos and a full report soon.
Go Eventing.
