WFP & Seacookie @ Burghley 2010, photo courtesy of the phenomenal Nico Morgan
Well, William Fox Pitt does it again. Seacookie rebounded in a week from a less than perfect showing at Burghley to win the Blenheim CCI3* with resounding confidence. William added nothing to his dressage score of 39.0 to move up from fifth into first after cross country, and completed a perfect clean round this afternoon to clinch the win. This event marks the 50th 3-Day Event win of his career, and reminds us how much of a winning machine this man really is. (photo courtesy of The Amazing Nico Morgan)
Mark Todd followed WFP closely into second place with his horse Conair, adding only 2.4 time penalties on XC to his dressage score of 39.6. Tina Cook & De Novo News moved up from 12th after dressage into third place with a lovely clear today and only .8 time penalties from yesterday. Looking at all the top ten placings, many of them were quite low after dressage, and were able to really leap up the standings with clear rounds in the jumping phases, showing that jumping double clear is still the most important skill set an Eventer can have. Francis Whittington jumped all the way from 25th to 6th!
Clean rounds of show jumping were more and more frequent as the higher placed riders entered the ring, which made the show jumping even more exciting. With only a few points separating the top ten, an unlucky rail could cost you quite a few positions on the leaderboard. All of the top ten riders jumped double clean, save Oliver Townend & Outside Chance as well as Polly Jackson & Highland Charm. Oliver’s one rail dropped him from 4th to 8th.
Rebecca Howard finished a stellar weekend on her dressage score to catch some redemption after a tumble at the Olympics. She placed just outside the top 10, in 11th place. Virginian Emily Beshear jumped double clear to add nothing to her score of 63.6 after cross country, which was good enough for 24th place at her first . Both of these ladies will be thrilled with their horses, and I know they’ll have big grins on their faces tonight.
[Final CCI3* Scores] [Sunday Pictures]
The CIC3* also finished today, with winner’s circle veteran Andrew Nicholson finding himself in a familiar position with the blue ribbon, this time with Quimbo. He was closely followed by WFP on Bay My Hero, who will be contesting his first CCI4* next month at Pau, and was thrilled to get a good confidence building run here at Blenheim to lead up.
Also happening was the high jump challenge, and the bareback course challenge. The winner of the high jump was Tom Robinson, who jumped 6 foot to win the whole class. There was also a side-saddle high jump competition, which I do not ever foresee myself desiring to participate in…..I’m not that crazy!
[Bareback Jumper & High Jump Challenge Pictures]
Tom Robinson clearing 6ft for the win (photo via Blenheim FB)
