Oliver Townend is king of Thirlestane Castle
In an outstanding run of form at Thirlestane Castle, Oliver Townend won the intermediate and the advanced classes, was runner-up and sixth in the OI and third in the CIC** and capped it all by taking the Scottish Open Championship with his European Championships ride Flint Curtis (pictured).
Just for good measure, he was also fifth on Jackson d’Allez. Between them, Oli and girlfriend Piggy French took 14 horses to the Borders and, not to be outdone, Piggy won the CIC**.
Oli picked up 56 points towards the H&H advanced eventing league leaderboard, where he has extended his lead over William Fox-Pitt in second and Andrew Nicholson in third.
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Because of the number of cancellations further south, Thirlestane attracted record entries, with a field of 62 contested the Open Championship.
Oli Townend narrowly piped the defending champion, Ruth Edge, this time riding Muschamp Impala, to the post. Three time-penalties, in addition to one jumping mistake, in the final phase proved costly, giving Oli Townend victory by a margin of just 1.7 penalties.
Germany’s Ingrid Klimke and Butts Abraxxas finished third, ahead of Lucy Wiegersma and Shaabrak.
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For the second year running, Caroline Powell won the Novice Championship, on this occasion with Mount Annan Holdings’ Ebb Tide.
Ruth Edge and Jonathan Snowdon’s Paper Tiger finished runners-up. Third spot went to Keep Your Options Open, owned jointly by Didy Morgan and rider Ewart Woolley.
Read this report in full, including fantastic photography of all the action, in this week’s Horse & Hound (23 August, ’07)
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