Upsilon shows off his scope. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Tom Carlile and Upsilon mastered all three phases of our sport this weekend: record-setting dressage, bold cross country and near perfection in today’s show jumping wrapped up their wire-to-wire win of the CICO3* at Millstreet International Horse Trials.
The 10-year-old Anglo-Arabian stallion (Canturo X O’Vive, by Fusain du Defey) carried an eight-point lead into the ring, but he didn’t need it. He left all the poles in their cups to finish on 17.3—beating a own personal best finishing result at this level by over seven points.
Tom and Upsilon’s performance today also secured a French victory in this FEI Nations Cup, and extended dominance in the overall series standings as they’ve now won four of the six legs.
Ros Canter piloted her own Zenshera to a double clear round and a second place finish. The 14-year-old Dutch Warmblood (Guidam x Telvera, by Matterhorn) finishes on 26-flat as an individual representative of Great Britain.
Alex Bragg was equally bang on this weekend having one time penalty on both rides for third and fourth place aboard Barrichello and Shannondale Percy, respectively.
His Nations Cup ride Barrichello, a 9-year-old Ango European gelding (Balou du Rouet x Madon’s Even Wiser, by Matinee du Madon VII) owned by Caroline & Jane March, finished on 29.9, and stablemate Shannondale Percy, an 8-year-old Irish Sport Horse (Shannondale Sarco St. Ghyvan x Shannondale Maria, Lux Z) owned by Sara Hughes, closes the weekend on a final result of 30.
Liz Halliday-Sharp and Fernhill By Night. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Liz Halliday-Sharp is our highest-placed American in fifth place with Fernhill By Night. “Blackie,” a 15-year-old Irish Sport Horse (Radolin X Argentina XII, by Argentinus) owned by Deborah Halliday, just tapped an oxer to for one down and a three-phase score of 33.9.
“Blackie was good. It’s been a long time since he’s jumped on the last day—he probably hasn’t done a CCI in three years, so it’s been a while for him to run hard the day before,” Liz said. “He just had one unfortunate rail. He just rubbed it behind, but he did jump well. He was a bit stiff from the day before, but he tried hard and I was pleased he finished fifth.”
Liz Halliday-Sharp and Deniro Z. Photo by Jenni Autry.
Liz’s Nations Cup entry, Deniro Z, a 10-year-old KWPN (Zapatero VDL X Zonne-Trend, by French Buffet xx) owned by the Denrio Syndicate, got a wild look in his eye coming into the ring, and Liz had to work hard to keep the focus. Ultimately, he had three down to finish 18th on 41.9 points.
“We didn’t have the best round today. He really wasn’t himself. He jumped amazing in the warmup—I couldn’t get him to even breathe on a poll. I had a really good chance at a clear. I haven’t had him out to jump a big track since Luhmühlen. I think that was a mistake on my part because he came out spooking at the tent, and he just wasn’t really with me,” she said.
“He’s gotten so strong now, he’s a real proper big man now, and he wasn’t really with me today. I didn’t have much in the way of controls. He wasn’t his usual self, so we’ll go home and reassess bitting and do some show jumping to get his head back in the game because he’s an exceptional horse and an exceptional jumper, so we just have to go figure out what went wrong.”
Liz’s two-star ride Cooley Quicksilver, who is owned by “The Monster Partnership” of Rob Desino, Chris Desino, Renee Lane and Debby Halliday, produced an impressive fourth place finish in the CIC2* class with just 2.4 time penalties added. One to watch for the future for sure!
Hallie Coon and Celien. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Hallie Coon and Celien, an 11-year-old KWPN mare (Tenerife VDL X R Quicksilver, by Hamlet) owned by Hallie and Helen Coon, finished 48th in the standings after an unfortunate second look at the Irish Bank on yesterday’s cross country course. They knocked two rails today for a finishing result of 73.9.
“The two rails were unfortunate but I think she just needs to get a bit stronger,” Hallie said. “The whole weekend was an educational experience and it was incredibly helpful to start working with Erik (Duvander) and learning his philosophies moving forward from here. With all that said and done I’m really looking forward to the fall season and Pau.”
Millstreet’s Nations Cup competition exercised the new Olympic format of three-member teams this weekend, and the French rose to the challenge to win on 114 points. Great Britain dominated the leaderboard with seven riders in the top ten, and their team was second with 123.9 points. Ireland had two teams that both finished third and fourth, and down one rider after Buck Davidson and Carlevo’s withdraw yesterday, the United States finished fifth.
“It was really good to test the new [Olympic] format here at this event. We had all sorts of different versions of possible questions for future competition and the value of running through that and testing it here has been immensely good,”U.S. Eventing Technical Advisor and Chef d’Equipe Erik Duvander said.
“Many people agree that cutting down to three combinations in each team can be okay, however, the rules and thinking around the substitutes do seem to make the sport more complicated and possibly difficult to understand. We had several scenarios over the weekend that proved that. The general feeling is there needs to be more thinking and trial runs if they are going to get this right.”
EN also can confirm that Carlevo was withdrawn from the competition due to knocking himself. From Erik Duvander: “The horse had a bit of bruising. After dressage, the team vet evaluated him and it was decided that for this weekend, it was the best scenario not to run [Carlevo], as he is a future prospect for team competition and a very talented horse. It’s a minor injury, but you also want to be careful.”
FEI Nations Cup at Millstreet: Website, Schedule, Start Times & Live Scoring, Live Stream, EN’s Coverage
This post was updated to include quotes from Erik Duvander and Hallie Coon.
