Young Dressage Horse Stars at PSI DJWTS

Excitement is building for this year’s PSI Dressage & Jumping with the Stars which starts on Thursday and continues through until Saturday evening at the Werribee Park National Equestrian Centre.  Almost 300 horses are competing, from all states of Australia. With international guest stars Ingrid Klimke, Greg Best, Dr Ulf Moeller and Annabel Frenzen, Australian Olympic and WEG representative riders, Grand Prix dressage and jumping horses, the best of Australia’s young dressage and jumping horses on display, informative Masterclasses and trade village shopping it’s an event not to be missed!

The feature classes are of course the PSI Australian Young Dressage Horse Championships and there will be some impressive and well performed horses competing. A full class of thirty-five 4 year old horses will front the judges in the International Horse Breeders 4yo Material Championship from late morning on Thursday with the top three to be ridden in the final round by Ingrid Klimke on Saturday morning.  Several imported stallions are making their DJWTS debut and they are expected to create interest from both the judges and spectators !  Lord Lemarque owned by Kate Barton and ridden by Deon Stokes (the successful combination behind Royal Oaks II and Bellario – both previous winners at DJWTS ); Legend of Loxley, owned by Heather Pocock and to be ridden by Bennett Conn from Queensland; and Now on Top owned by the Belcam Stud and to be ridden in both the dressage and jumping classes by Melissa Van Den Berge.  Horses in this class with excellent qualifying results include Sugarloaf Sirhara and Daniella Dierks, the imported mare Lady Sinatra (Tor Van Den Berge), Revelwood Destiny (Amanda Shoobridge) and Heathmont Sima with Jacinta Aberneathy, fresh from winning the 4yo Championship at the Boneo Park CDI*** with a terrific score of 8.02.

The Woodleigh International 5 year old Championship sees the return of last year’s 4yo winner, the impressive SS Sonata Hit (Rodney Martin) along with several others who finished in the top 10 last year and who will be hoping to improve further this year. Horses to watch include Don De-Sandro (Matthew Dowsley) who was completely overwhelmed by the atmosphere last year but should be more settled this time.  The imported mare Diamond Star (Judy Dierks) easily qualified with scores over 8.0 and there are several others who also had strong qualifying performances: Brioni (Tor Van Den Berge), Linbil White Russian (Linda Williams), Danson Dynamic (Tracey Clayton) and Neversfelde Rafael (Bernadette Gibson).  Of course with a field of more than 30 horses, there are always going to be some surprise stars who will emerge, which is one of the attractions of this event for spectators!

The 4ACES 6 year old Championship has just 15 competitors, which is not surprising given the more demanding test which includes half pass and flying changes.   But what a talented and successful group of horses that will be fronting the judges!   Last year’s 5 year old winner, the stallion Bellario (Deon Stokes) returns again all the way from Western Australia but will face competition from the successful young horse Mayfield Be Brave (Kerry Mack) who was the 4yo winner here in 2009 and 2^nd last year.  The 2010 Sydney CDI 5 year old winner Kalimna Emblem and John Thompson will be another to watch, as will be Revelwood Donatello and Daniella Dierks, winners at Medium level in Sydney with scores of up to 70%. Add to this group a couple of lightly campaigned imported horses who have caught the eye in the qualifying competitions - Fame WK (Wayne Kiely) and Debstar LP with Maree Tomkinson (winners of the 6yo class at Boneo Park CDI*** last week) - and it’s going to be a great class to watch !

The top 3 placegetters after rounds 2 in the 5yo and 6yo Championships will be ridden by Ingrid Klimke in the Final Rounds on Saturday when she will assess their rideability and potential with her awarded mark helping determine the final placings.  Spectators can look forward to seeing a very talented rider on some impressive and exciting horses in the Final !  This will be followed by the Champion of Champions judging at 7pm on Saturday evening which is always exciting viewing!  Don’t miss it!

PSI Dressage & Jumping with the Stars runs from March 24-26 at the Werribee Park National Equestrian Centre.  Tickets available for purchase at the event.

More event information available from:  www.equestrianvictoriaevents.com.au/DJWTS.

Enquiries to Event Director - Caroline Coleby 0432 505