High jinks from William Fox-Pitt’s Luxury FH at trot-up as Bramham gets underway
William Fox-Pitt’s ride Luxury FH showed some high spirits at the first trot-up at the Equi-Trek Bramham Horse Trials yesterday evening (6 June).
Ninety-six horses, competing in the Equi-Trek CCI3* and the British Horse Feeds under-25 CCI3*, were presented to the ground jury of Les Smith, Jane Holderness-Roddam and Heather Buckland and all passed.
Luxury FH, Catherine Witt’s grey 12-year-old by Vechta, is one of two rides for William in the CCI3*, a class he has won seven times. William also rides the syndicate-owned nine-year-old Oratorio II in this class, as well as Carol Gee and Catherine Witt’s Fernhill Pimms in the BETA CIC3*, which he has triumphed in twice previously.
William reported on his website yesterday: “The park is looking wonderful but it is all quite dry, they have been doing lots of spiking, aerating and watering, and it doesn’t look as if we are going to get much rain. The course is quite different to two years ago, with 13 skinnies, angles or corners, so it is quite a test of accuracy, but is not over terrifying.”
William and Fernhill Pimms were first into the CIC3* dressage arena this morning and a mark of 26.9 was only superseded during the day by local girl Nicola Wilson, who piloted European individual bronze medallist Bulana to a score of 25.
Izzy Taylor is the last person in the CIC3* arena today at 4.36pm with Be Touchable, so the overnight results will not be certain until she has performed with last year’s Blenheim Event Rider Masters winner.
The lunchtime leader in the CCI3* is Germany’s Olympic team silver medallist Julia Krajewski riding Chipmunk FRH. She received an excellent mark of 19.4.
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Other ones to watch in this flagship class include Ireland’s 2014 Bramham winner Aoife Clark, this time riding Fernhill Adventure (dressage 9.08am Friday), France’s Gwendolen Fer and Traumprinz (9.16am Friday) and Nicola Wilson with One Two Many (10.58am Friday).
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The under-25 dressage takes place at the end of the day today and tomorrow. The favourites for this title will include Britain’s Emily King (Dargun, dressage 4.14pm Friday) and Chuffy Clarke with the experienced ex-Pippa Funnell horse Second Supreme (4.38pm Friday). France and the USA also have a strong hand in this section, while on-form Irish rider Cathal Daniels has a horse in both this class and the senior CCI3*.
Keep up to date with all the news from Bramham on horseandhound.co.uk over the next few days. Full report in next week’s issue of Horse & Hound magazine (14 June 2018)
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Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.