Dylan Deutrom scores a hat-trick and more, while a home-bred secures a win to kick off this highly-praised show at Aintree International Equestrian Centre
DYLAN DEUTROM’S 440-mile round trip from Hampshire to Merseyside for the Aintree High Profile dressage show proved lucrative as he won four classes: two at prix st georges (PSG) level and one inter I with Sarah Church, Matt Hicks and Will Dean’s San Marco, and the inter II with Matt Hicks and Sarah Warry’s Sunlit Uplands, along with several placings.
San Marco (Status Quo x Gribaldi) had a quiet time through last winter after a bit of self-harming in the box.
“He plays the fool all the time and knocked himself piaffing in the box,” explained Matt.
“Dylan rebuilt his stable over two days with sloped walls and rubber matting. I don’t know how we’d manage without Dylan,” he added. “Not only is he a great rider, but he’s also Mr Fix-it; you name it – fencing and anything like that is child’s play to him and he’s a good mechanic as well!”
Sunlit Uplands followed up his inter II win with a second in the grand prix. Dylan has ridden the Don Henrico gelding for five years now and was first reserve for the under-25 Europeans this year.
“I was particularly pleased with his grand prix test, even though there were a couple of silly mistakes – for example, we did 17 ones instead of 15 – but he felt amazing and there is so much more to come,” said Dylan. “It was a long way to come here but well worth it – an amazing venue and outstanding organisation.”
“Smell the success!”
The freestyle evening was sponsored by Knowsley Estate Private Stays, with a massive £1,000 to the winner of each of the PSG, inter I and grand prix music classes. Becky Moody took the PSG music prize with the hugely exciting seven-year-old Jagerbomb, while Matt Frost won the inter I freestyle with his own and the Keenans’ Helga. For Matt, the money already had a destination – the alternator on the lorry had blown.
“I couldn’t be more pleased with Helga,” said Matt, who also won Sunday’s inter II with the Chagall D&R mare. “Her last two outings were at the nationals and Horse of the Year Show, and to say she was a bit distracted is an understatement. She needs the exposure so came here and rose to the occasion.
“What a great venue – the organisation has been fantastic, the horses all got carrots and as for the stabling, you can smell the success in that yard.”
Emma Hindle won the grand prix freestyle with her Vivaldi gelding Diesel 8. It was the last leg of a long-range treble, with her niece, also called Emma, winning the inter-school showjumping championships for Sedburgh school and her son Luke in the school’s winning rugby team.
“It gets harder finding the time to fit everything in,” admitted Emma, who also runs the family’s Brookhouse Group.
Emma rode to a track put together by Tom Hunt.
“I wanted to use Florence and the Machine, but it just didn’t fit and we ended up going with a Lady Gaga medley,” she said.
Katie Bailey took Friday’s PSG with Michael and Alyssa Bucher’s Dancier gelding Defago, adding a second in the PSG freestyle on Saturday night. Katie has ridden the horse for two years now, finishing second in the advanced medium at the winter championships.
“He’s still green at PSG,” she said. “We did a safer test on the Friday and I rode for a bit more power in the freestyle but he was looking at the VIP tables and we made a mistake in the four-tempis. But I was so pleased, as he tried so hard.”
“The best money I ever spent”
LOCAL rider Lisa Marriott won the first and last classes of the show. The first, the medium 7,3 went to her home-bred Juno’s Whispering Angel, while the last, the grand prix, she won with Valucio.
Valucio, who is known as Rocket, was bought through Astrid Bolton who spotted the Va-Vite gelding in Belgium.
“She told me she’d found the perfect pocket rocket for me and she had,” said Lisa.
Juno, by Sezuan, is out of Paris, who came to Lisa completely by chance.
“Out of the blue I had a phone call from a lady near Peterborough asking if I wanted to buy two horses,” she explained. “She’d found my number in the classified section of Horse & Hound and rang me. I drove down to see the horses, who were being sold to clear a livery bill – I paid £1,000 for the two horses and got a kitten as a bonus – it was the best money I ever spent. The other horse went eventing, and Paris has given me four fabulous foals.”
“This has been a brilliant show and even better as it’s so close to me,” she added. “Rocket was out in the field for a few hours this morning – in fact, if you’d seen him at 9.30am today looking like a mud monster, you wouldn’t have thought he’d be competing here a few hours later.”
This was the first High Profile show at Aintree and it met with a thumbs up from competitors and spectators alike.
- This report will also be available to read in H&H magazine, on sale Thursday 4 November
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