Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials

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October 2015

October 2015 • VOLUME XV NUMBER 9

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BURGHLEY REPORT Winner Michael Jung with The Land Rover Burghley trophy

Michael Jung and La Biosthetique - Sam FBW, winners of The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials

Land Rover

Burghley Horse Trials

Thursday 3rd to Sunday 6th September 2015

Words by Julia Longland and photography courtesy of Fiona Rafferty, Nigel Goddard, Peter Nixon, Getty Images and Landrover Burghley Horse Trials

M

ichael Jung received a rousing accolade from the huge crowd who had packed the stands at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials to watch the dramatic show jumping finale, as he and his brilliant 16-year-old La Biosthetique Sam FBW jumped a crucial clear round to hold off the challenge of New Zealand’s Tim Price and Ringwood Sky Boy just 1.5 penalties behind them. When Jung, 33, won the Olympic title in 2012, he was the first rider to hold European, World and Olympic titles simultaneously, all three on the mighty Sam. At Burghley Jung’s cool nerve proved equal to the pressure of going last, displaying outstanding horsemanship as he became the first German ever to capture a British four star event. “This has been a really special competition,” said Jung. “To be here at Burghley with two horses, to ride the cross-country, has all been wonderful and to win an event which is such a great tradition in the sport is just fantastic. This will be one of the highlights of my life, I have really enjoyed it and I hope I have horses to bring here next year.”

Overnight dressage leaders Michael Jung and Fischerrocana FST fell at fence four. We now know Michael completed and won with a broken leg.

The mighty Sam This was the 21st international event Jung had won with Sam, who was bought by

Michael and his father Joachim as a fiveyear-old near their home at Horb, where his parents own a riding school. Sam is now owned by the Jung family, Erich Single and the German Olympic Equestrian Federation.

“He is my good friend,” said Jung, still limping after his fall at the water from first ride FischerRocana FST, the joint dressage leader, early on Saturday’s cross country course. “I know Sam from many years, we have a very long partnership, I have learned a lot from him and with him and maybe he has learned a bit from me. He gives me a great feeling and every time he tries 100%.

He was very strong and powerful in the warm-up, very careful and concentrated. He made it easy for me. I know every detail of him, he always listens to the rider.”

It was noteworthy that Burghley was the third four-star event of the year for Sam, a son of Stan The Man, as he had been third at Kentucky in April and Luhmuehlen in June, so the questions on Captain Mark Phillips’ testing Land Rover cross country course could have been taxing for a 16-yearold with plenty of miles on his clock in the previous six months, but as Sam galloped round the 4 and a half mile course in the third fastest time of the day, fresh and fighting fit, Jung’s game plan was clearly spot on.

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Tina Cook and Star Witness finished eighth

Best of the British

Georgie Strang and Cooley Business Time looking very glamorous at the first veterinary inspection

Best of the rest With 12 of Britain’s best horses heading for Blair, the home challenge was quieter than usual, but the fact remains that the New Zealand/Australian thrust has become extremely strong, with Tim Price (Ringwood Sky Boy) and his wife Jonelle (Classic Moet) taking second and fifth, Australia’s Christopher Burton in third and fourth on TS Jamaimo and Haruzac, and Sir Mark Todd sixth with a masterly round on Leonidas II. This was all, of course, without the triple Land Rover Burghley winner Andrew Nicholson, who was recovering from his neck injury at Gatcombe in August.

Tina Cook secured Britain’s top placing with eighth on Star Witness, a 10-year-old

bought by her mother Althea Gifford as an unbroken three-year-old at Doncaster Sales making his four star debut. William Fox-Pitt was tenth on another four star debutant, Fernhill Pimms. Oliver Townend was eleventh on Dromgurrihy Blue and Georgie Spence 12th on WII Limbo.

Jonelle Price, who started the show jumping phase in third, ahead of Burton in fourth and fifth on TS Jamaimo and Haruzac, dropped back to fifth with an expensive fence down on Trisha Rickards’ black mare Classic Moet, but her outstanding cross country round, one of only two to be completed inside the magic time of 11 minutes 12 seconds, was a breath-defying 16 seconds inside the time without ever appearing to be rushed, and

was rated by Course Designer Captain Mark Phillips as “the round of the day.”

Burton was the only other rider to finish inside the time on TS Jamaimo, the only horse to complete the event on his dressage score. The unassuming Burton, who lives near Dunsfold in Surrey, also revealed after finishing the cross country on first ride Haruzac, that his first Burghley attempt in 2004 at the age of 22 when based in Australia, had ended with a fall at the third fence, and his 2011 ride, Holstein Park Leilani, (his London Olympics ride in 2012) fell at the Cottesmore Leap.

From a British viewpoint, the major disappointment was the sudden descent down the order of William Fox-Pitt on Catherine Witt and Carol Gee’s lovely

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Francis Whittington and Hasty Imp

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