Carl celebrates grand prix glory

24 July 2001

Carl Hester claimed his second Premier League grand prix win in as many weeks, this time when Donnersong – second at Soley Dressage two weeks before – headed the class at the rescheduled West Wilts show.

It was the first grand prix victory for Donnersong, although Kate Carter’s home-bred 11-year-old stallion has rarely been out of the ribbons in his competitive career.

“It’s so enjoyable to have a horse who has such enthusiasm for his work,” said Carl, whose next objective is to try Donnersong in his first international grand prix at the Hickstead CDIO at the end of August, aiming for an initial qualifying percentage for eligibility for next year¨s World Equestrian Games.

Although gaining the verdict from two of the three judges, Emile Faurie and Reuters Atoll had to settle for another Premier League second place.

Catherine Adair’s impressive 10-year-old Hanoverian by Archipel now heads for this week’s Premier League show at Hickstead.

The intermediaire II saw another win for Tricia Gardiner and Moon Tiger, but by the narrowest of margins, the former Olympic rider gained the verdict on collective marks from Pammy Hutton and Calendo.

Forty-four entries for the prix st georges meant that the organisers made a decision to divide the class, although late withdrawals left the first section depleted to 12 starters, who were therefore spread over the original allotted time for the full class.

This, however, did not detract from a good win by Charlotte Edmonds who scored a convincing percentage with Broomford Locarno, gaining a unanimous verdict and scoring more than 68% for a 30-mark lead over the rest of the class.

Eighteen-year-old Charlotte also had the edge with the stallion Torque O’ The Devil in a more closely contested intermediaire I.

Despite a comparatively short season this year, Jane Bredin and Icterus managed to account for their fifth win in prix st georges, taking thesecond and bigger section of the class.

Just eight came forward for the grand prix freestyle and this was won by Finnish international rider Kyra Kyrklund on Asterix.

Jane Bredin took pole position in the Inch¨s Saddlery Prix St Georges freestyle qualifier with Lucky Star, ahead of David Hunt and Sarah Pidgely’s Hanoverian stallion Art Gallery.

The third day of competition was confined to qualifiers for a place in the Shearwater Young Horse championships to be held at Hickstead thisweekend (28-29 July).

Kyra Kyrklund gained the highest mark of the four qualifying classes to take the six-year-old international qualifier with her own Swedish Warmblood Max, who is by the top Swedish stallion Master.

In the five-year-old classes, Lizzie Murray and Catherston Dougal gained their third Shearwater win in as many outings by taking the national qualifier, while Alice Wilson dominated the international section, heading the class with the Dutch-bred Odorado, beating herself into second place on Obelix II.

To read full report see Horse & Hound issue dated 26 July

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