Jamie Winning and Vangelo Des Hazelles 2009 NZL Horse of the Year Show Photograph:Nicol Taylor

 

Equestrian Australia’s 2008 Young Rider of the Year, Jamie Winning confirmed her position as a most worthy recipient of the award last night with a thrilling win in the Sydney Royal Easter Show’s FEI World Cup Qualifying competition. The event was the first of 15 competitions to be completed during 2009 allowing the leading combination to represent Australia in the 2010 FEI World Cup Final in Gotheburg, Sweden.

 

A field of nineteen riders contested the first round which comprised twelve obstacles with fifteen efforts. The Australian flag planks at fence three caused problems to a few riders as did the two 1.60 metre high verticals at fences five and eleven. The treble combination of a triple bar, two strides to a vertical, one stride to an oxer required riders to be accurate and for the horses to have the scope to jump out.

 At the conclusion of the first round there were two clear rounds, one from the relatively inexperienced 21 year old, Jamie Winning riding Yandoo Vangello and one from the very experienced partnership of Laurie Lever and Ashleigh Drossel Dan. A total of seven horses finished with just one rail down and carried the four penalties to round two, a further four had finished with a total of eight penalties.

 

The second round of the competition was conducted in the early evening under lights in front of a full stadium of 15,000 spectators. Competitors with eight penalties and less were invited back to contest the second round with the eight penalty combinations going first, followed by those on four penalties and finally the two clear rounds.

 

With just nine obstacles comprising ten efforts in the second round, speed and precision was asked for from the outset. A tight option between obstacles one and two was a real time saver but only three riders elected to take it and they all made it look easy. The early riders elected for steady clear rounds and weren’t able to improve their positions as the course proved easier than it first appeared. Billy Raymont’s Stardom looked very impressive giving all of the fences plenty of air although Billy elected for speed alone and left out the options.

 

Clear rounds kept flowing with Colleen Brook and Poet’s Corner , David Robertson and Sharp Seale and Tim Amitrano and Mr Innocent all posting clear rounds but with times that left them low in the placings or just outside the money.

 

The crowd was put on the edge of their seats when Chris Chugg, on his first of two rides, Conquistador began their round. With a full speed start and being the first to take the short options as well as taking out two strides in the line from seven to eight and a blistering gallop to the last oxer, Chris had shown how the course could be ridden. He stopped the clock at 48.87 seconds and jumped to a five second lead with nothing to add to his four penalties from round 1.

 

Western Australian rider, David Dobson, on the impressive big stallion Argyle Stables Pico Bello tried to better Conquistador by taking the very short option between one and two as well as matching Chris with the six stride option but came up just short with a clear round and time of 49.00 seconds to finish on their first round score of four penalties.

 

Showing increased confidence in her own ability to ride at speed, Julia Hargreaves and Copabella Hayman took all of the options and managed them with ease. With a clear round and time of 51.61 their four penalties from the first round gave them fifth position.

 

Chris Chugg on Vivant must have rued his misfortune to have the first fence down in round one. In what may well have been the most precise and fastest round seen in jumping for some time they set the appreciative crowd alight with their efforts, even with an additional four penalties in the second round when the back rail of fence eight fell. Their time of 46.32 had taken two and half seconds off his time on Conquistador for an eventual seventh place.

 

Carrying the demon from her experience in the Kelt Capital Grand Prix in New Zealand, Jamie Winning on Yandoo Vangello were cautious to the extreme over the first part of the course. Jamie openly admitted that it was at the back of her mind when walking the course that she had to get a confident start to the second round. “I was thinking about what happened to me in New Zealand and I didn’t want a repeat of that experience,” she said after the class. They elected to miss all of the short turn options available to them in the first part of the course but stepped up a gear in the seven to eight line where they easily made the six strides and then powered home to the last fence. Clear in a slow time of 59.26 they then had to sit and wait for last to go, Laurie Lever and Ashleigh Drossel Dan.

 

To everyone’s surprise Laurie set off at a leisurely pace with slightly tighter lines than Jamie but he also elected to pass up any of the short option turns. A slight increase in tempo over the last three fences gave him some chance of bettering Jamie’s time but in the end he had miscalculated and finished with a time of 59.95.

 

Asked about her initial reaction to the win Jamie commented, “I knew I wasn’t that fast in the first part of the round and as Laurie crossed the finish line I wasn’t sure if his time was better than mine. However the roar from my supporter group in the grandstand soon told me that I had just beaten Laurie’s time.”

 

This win gives Jamie her second world cup win. “It was fantastic to win, particularly as my mum and dad, as well as many of my relatives were here to see the competition. They all take a great interest in my performances and give me so much encouragement whether I win or lose,” said a beaming Jamie.