Andrew Hoy and Lucinda Fredericks Lead the Australian Charge at Luhmuhlen CCI4*

Triple Olympic gold medallist Andrew Hoy has the Luhmuhlen CCI4* title well within his grasp after a strong performance on cross country day moved him and his nine year old gelding Rutherglen into second position behind leader Michael Jung of Germany.

Luhmuhlen is a significant event for UK based Australian Eventers because it is the final opportunity for them to impress national selectors ahead of their meeting next week to decide who will comprise the five member Eventing team for the London Olympic Games.

After a strong Dressage test on day one, Hoy and Rutherglen started the day in fourth but finished the cross country course clear and within time and are now just two penalties from the lead.

Hoy says he’s happy with the improvements Rutherglen has made since their last four-star outing at Kentucky (USA) in April. “He has come on a lot from that experience,” explained Hoy. “I never had to push him today which was a nice feeling.”

It was a good day overall for the Australian contingent with two combinations finishing in the top five.

Beijing silver medallist Lucinda Fredericks was leading the field after the Dressage phase and correctly predicted she would have a few time penalties on Flying Finish. She is still in fourth place after a committed performance.

Lucinda made a brilliant recovery to hold her line after the German-bred gelding tripped over the first element of a water jump. “If Flying Finish was human, he would be a really nice, honest person,” Fredericks said.

Australia has three combinations in the top ten leading into Sunday’s Show Jumping phase with Atlanta gold medallist Wendy Schaeffer and Koyuna Sun Dancer moving ahead ten places after cross country to end the day in ninth position. The 2010 Badminton CCI4* champion, Paul Tapner and Inonothing are not far behind sitting in 11th, while Catherine Burrell and Urzan and Emma Dougall and Kelecyn Ice Age improved upon their first day positions to finish 15th and 24th respectively.

FEI World Cup Eventing points leader in 2008, Kevin McNab is 18th.

Coverage of the Jumping phase, which promises to bring Luhmuhlen 2012 to a thrilling finale, starts at 9:25pm AEST (1:25pm local time) on FEI TV (www.feitv.org).

Australian standings after Cross Country

2 Andrew Hoy/Rutherglen 34.80

4 Lucinda Fredericks/Flying Finish 41.0

9 Wendy Schaeffer/Koyuna Sun Dancer 51.90

11 Paul Tapner/Inonothing 55.70

15 Catherine Burrell/Urzan 69.50

18 Kevin McNab/Clifton Pinot 77.00

24 Emma Dougall/Kelecyn Ice Age 94.00

50 Peter Atkins/Henry Jota Hampton Withdrawn before xc

Quick Link

• Full results on www.luhmuehlen.de