Schaeffer Tops in Adelaide

South Australia's Wendy Schaeffer has won the 2010 Australian International 3-Day Event (AI3DE) in a tight finish, narrowly beating Christopher Burton by half a point.

Riding Koyuna Sun Dancer in today’s ATCO Group Show Jumping day, the third phase of the Equestrian Australia Adelaide CCI**** Schaeffer put on a spectacular performance in front of thousands of cheering event goers to secure the points needed to be crowned the AI3DE Champion for 2010.


Wendy Schaeffer & Koyuna Sun Dancer. Photograph:Jess Moffatt


Schaeffer’s win follows a hotly contested competition with less than four and half points separating the top three riders, Emma Mason, Stuart Tinney and Schaeffer, at the close of yesterday’s cross country event. Schaeffer also took third place with her second horse Koyuna Sun Shine. It is the second time Schaeffer has won the Australian International 3 Day Event, last taking top honours in 2002. It was a disappointing afternoon for overnight leader Emma Mason who dropped to sixth place on F1 Pharinelli.



In the CCI** competition, Christopher Burton from New South Wales riding Haruzac took out first place while Tegan Lush from Western Australia riding Tempus Fugit came in second, also taking home the Young Rider National Championship crown. Sandy Lucas from New South Wales on Ever So Clever came in third.

Luke Jones from South Australia, who was leading the Adelaide CCI** competition at the end of yesterday’s gruelling cross country stage, came in 12th following a disappointing show jumping round.

Earlier in the day, Shane Rose from New South Wales won the Bates Australia CIC** competition on his horse Statford Neo while Robert Palm and Tim Boland, both from New South Wales, came in second and third respectively.

Olympic champion and Event Director Gillian Rolton says this year’s event has been an outstanding success with today’s sunshine boosting crowd numbers.
“The Australian International 3-Day Event has continued to prove itself as one of the world’s greatest equestrian events, with spectators treated to world-class riding over three, action-packed days,” Ms Rolton says.

“The weather was definitely on our side this year making for comfortable conditions for both horse and rider to perform at a world class standard and the events off the field were just as successful with guests enjoying the party atmosphere.”

CCI**** Technical Delegate Andy Griffith, who has officiated at the event for the past three years and finishes his tenure this year, says Adelaide has once again put on a unique event across three parklands in a major city.

“I would like to congratulate Wayne Copping who has the ability to design a true four-star course in such a challenging setting and once again thank Gillian Rolton for putting on such a great event,” he said.

From the sideline...
The Show Jumping was VERY influential in all classes today. In the CCI4* there were 3 clear rounds (two by Wendy Schaeffer, the other by Chris Burton) and two more clear jumping but each with 3 time faults (John Twoomey and Katja Weimann).

In the CCI2* there were two clear rounds out of the 35 combinations who jumped (eventual 1st and 2nd place getters Christopher Burton on Haruzac and Young Rider Tegan Lush on Tempus Fugit).

The CIC2* fared a little better with 9 clear rounds from 20 starters, including the top 7 placegetters.
Equestrian Australia CCI4*: Eleanor Osborne and Mighty High were placed 16th and were therefore first into the arena for the four star class. They put together a good round for just four faults.

Wendy Schaeffer was next on Koyuna Sun Shine, riding out of order due to having two horses in the top 10. She was placed 6th going into the jumping and she delivered a clear round setting the bench mark for the horses that followed. However, few were able to meet the challenge.
ESB Irish Endeavour ridden by Will Enzinger jumped well for the majority of the round but ended up with two fences down - The next two horses into the arena have had almost identical performances this weekend. New Zealand’s John Twoomey on Flaunt It and Katja Weimann on Pluto Mio. Both attractive athletic grey horses, both very talented on the flat but behaved badly on Friday to disappoint their riders (scoring in the 70s). Both jumped clear yesterday but with more than 20 time faults each, and today both jumped great clear rounds but with 3 time faults a piece. Flaunt It finished on 99.80 and Pluto Mio on 98.8 penalties. Luke Jones and his wonderful old Soul and Adam Benson and the cat-like Enthusiast each had 4 faults.

Tallara Barwick will be disappointed with 3 rails down on Chief Justice, who just looked flat today. Balmoral Cavalier who Emily Anker says has now done 9 CCI4*s was not at his best with 16 faults today. What an amazing horse to front up to nine four stars, this one at 18 years of age.

Natalie Blundell also had 4 rails on Algebra, who was just a bit unsettled in the ring. He did a great job yesterday, clear with just 9.2 time and Natalie will be glad to have his first four star under his belt.

So now we were into the top 5. Heath Ryan and Mystery Whisper were great. Just the one rail which ultimately moved him up one spot to fourth.

Chris Burton and Newsprint were all class. They were winners of this class in 2008 and today they put in a beautiful clear round. It looked like they may just take the title for a second time. And they would have if Wendy Schaeffer had not been positioned above him.

Wendy and Koyuna Sun Dancer, (the brown gelding for those of you who get confused by Wendy's horses) whilst perhaps not as classical as Chris, jumped clear - just as we all expected. The pressure was now on Stuart Tinney and Emma Mason.
Stuart could not afford a rail. Watermark Grayson has really good days and not so good days; this was a not so good day. Three rails down and Stuart slipped to 5th place. Wendy moves into 2nd.

All eyes were now on the overnight leader Emma Mason and F1 Pharinelli. Emma now had 4.5 penalties up her sleeve. Going into the jumping Emma said that she had done a lot of preparation for this phase and she confident. However, everyone needs their stars to align to win a four star and that was not the case today for Emma. F1 Pharinelli was not jumping carefully and Emma had a crushing 4 rails down - dropping her to 6th place.

So Wendy Schaeffer wins her second Australian Three-Day Event title (the first was in 2002 on Koyuna Sun-Glo) “I am thrilled, he was great. It is such a great event and it is always fantastic to be a winner,” said Wendy.

Wendy says she plans to take her Eventing horses overseas next year and would like to compete at Luhmuhlen and Pau CCI4* events , the only two CCI4* s that she has not yet ridden at.

“And hopefully get selected for London 2012,” said Wendy.
Adelaide CCI2*: Christopher Burton was a deserving winner of the class. Alan Skinner’s Haruzac, who was lying in 2nd going into today’s competition jumped superbly.
His clear round put pressure on Luke Jones and Charlatan, who had been leading after yesterday’s cross-country. However, I don’t think it made any difference; as Charlatan was not going to jump clear today in any case. Poor Luke had 20 faults dropping him to 12th place.

Claudia Graham would have been disappointed to have 2 rails on Park Street Vision, who was 3rd in last year’s CIC2* class. Park Street Vision had a bad run with an injury from a stable accident and further complications setting his program back over the 12 months. It was great to see him looking fantastic all weekend and a credit to Claudia that she once again finished in the places (4th).

Christine Bates is a very professional rider and she has had great success on Adelaide Hill in the last 12 months. She was really looking for a clear round to move her up from her 4th place after yesterday’s cross country. It was not to be today and Adelaide Hill backed off the oxer before the treble and Christine had to hunt him through the line, two rails came down and they dropped to 5th place.

The first clear round in this class came from Tegan Lush from Western Australia. Tegan and Tempus Fugit jumped from 6th place to 2nd. Tegan won the Bates National Young Rider Championship and was part of the winning Young Rider Team (Western Australia). Well done Tegan.

Sandy Lucas, NSW, and Ever So Clever finished 3rd after a good round with just one rail down bumped them up the places from 5th.

Bates Australia CIC2*: Shane Rose held his overnight leading the class on the 6-year-old stallion Statford Neo. Shane rode Statford Neo’s sire, Statford Novalis, to 2nd place in this class last year.

Shane jumped a good clear round today to keep Robert Palm and Koko Black at bay. Robert finished 2nd also with a clear round. This is a relatively new ride for Robert, and interestingly Shane rode him to 3rd place in the CCI2* here last year.

The top 7 in this class today all jumped clear with the exception of Dominic Jones and Paint the Sky who had one rail. Unfortunately this dropped Dominic from 4th to 12th.

Tim Boland and Mercator Du Ry remained in 3rd place and Katja Weimann moved up one place to 4th on BP Cosmopolitan.

Anna Savage Memorial Award - awarded to the Best and Fairest Eventing Rider for the year. Congratulations to 2010 winner Stuart Tinney (NSW)
The Peppermint Grove Memorial Trophy – awarded to the most outstanding Event horse of the year was won by Vettori – owned by Peter O’Connell and Kathy Ward and ridden by Stuart Tinney.

Bates Australia National Young Rider Championship
Winner Tegan Lush (WA) Tempus Fugit
2nd Katie Remond (NSW)True Blue Toozac
3rd Madeline Wilson (QLD) Ce Ce Moscato
4th Cooper Oborn (SA) Splurge

Teams
Place Team Total
1 WA TEAM (219.10)
Tegan Lush Tempus Fugit
Emily Gray Deltry Invader
Makayla Wood Just Corona
Elizabeth Moore Ellesmere Cailin

2 SA TEAM (238.10)
Cooper Oborn Splurge
Joseph Waldron Springvale All Black
Joseph Waldron Eminence
Jade Kluske LAKOTA

3 VIC TEAM (256.80)
Tarryn Proctor Newsman
Andrew Helestine Warrego Winchester
Tarryn Proctor ESB Irish Quest
Felicity Siddle Sallusk

4 NSW TEAM (325.80)
Katie Remond True Blue Toozac
Andrew Cooper Guest of Honour
Bella Mowbray Starvision
Jessica Petherbridge Falcon Dusky Bear