Browne from strength to strength at Wooroloo 3 Day Event

Lauren Browne returned home to WA after a stint with Prue and Craig Barrett in NSW to record a personal best and top the Reece’s Event Hire CCI3* at the Prestige Loans and Wealth Creation Wooroloo International Three-Day Event.

“Sky’s Da Limit has just gone from strength to strength - he did a PB in the dressage and just ate up the hills on the cross country,” explained Lauren who was enjoying her first run with the nine-year-old ex-racehorse since the Melbourne three day event back in June.

Many spectators turned up to the Wooroloo Prison Farm to enjoy watching seasoned Australian team rider and Olympic silver medallist Sonja Johnson return to her one of her favourite events to win the Prestige Loans and Wealth Creation CIC3* with her longtime partner, Parkiarrup Illicit Liaison (Ben), who is now 17 years young.

“He’s very special and all the time he is having fun he can keep playing,” said Sonja, who was quick to praise the Wooroloo event.

“I think it’s the best cross-country course in WA and a credit to the organising committee and the vision of chairman Brett Christie, who is sadly stepping down after 11 years. Its invaluable for us to have this event here so we don’t have to go over East at least twice chasing qualifications,” explained Sonja, who will head East in November for Adelaide with ‘Ben’ and her third placed ride, Misty Isle Valentino.

Another rider heading to Adelaide’s Australian International Three-Day Event is Emily Gray, who was second in the CIC3* with Jocular Vision. “When I first got him six years ago everyone said he was too strong for me but now everyone loves him – he is a massive horse but he really pings off the ground and his jump is just unreal,” explained physiotherapist Emily, who is currently based in Perth.

Tegan Lush led from the dressage to top the competitive CIC2* by less than 0.2 penalties with Touchstone Felix. “He’s almost too careful for eventing - he can be quite shy and spooky,” explained Tegan, who has recently moved to Serpentine, just south of Perth. Cindy Lyall also maintained her dressage ranking to finish second with GI Joe, who was returning from a 14 month competition break due to a leg injury. “I also had ankle reconstruction surgery 4 months ago so it was a first big outing for me too!” explained Cindy, who has owned the 14 -year-old ex-racehorse for seven years.

Following wholesale changes to the cross-country tracks for the May event at Wooroloo, international course designer Wayne Copping made smaller tweaks to the existing tracks this time and focused his creativity on the inaugural EvA 65 course. “Because they are new to this sort of event, I wanted to keep the EvA65 riders away from the general excitement a bit but still give them good value for money so they didn’t feel like an add-on,” explained Wayne, who has been involved with this event for more than 25 years.

Eventing WA CCI2* winner Belinda Isbister (Here to Stay) said Wooroloo is always a tough cross-country track because of the terrain: “Horses have to be extremely fit to get up and down the hills - all of the questions were on correct distances but you had to be accurate. My horse went like a dream, I pointed him at the fences and he was focused and on the job.”

Runner-up Michael Dagostino paid a heartfelt tribute to his support team, especially ‘supergroom' Dani Carey who does everything at home while Michael works full time as a solicitor. “In the week leading up to a competition I try to ride at least three times, but I couldn’t do it without Dani - she’s amazing!” explained Michael, who enjoyed a seamless cross-country round with the former 4* horse, Kinnordy Gatow.

Police officer Katherine Joyce repeated her May Wooroloo result with another win in the Linley Valley Pork CCI* on her seven-year-old off the track Thoroughbred, The Diamond Thief. “He’s a naturally fit horse and he found the cross country a piece of cake!” said the one-horse rider from Harvey.

Second placed Phoebe Tucker (Out to Play) needn’t have worried about her horse’s fitness as she finished inside the time across country: “We had a difficult preparation as we’ve had lots of wet weather so it’s hard to get the fitness work in but Out to Play was on the ball today and really speedy across country.”

Full results on http://www.ktrials.com.au/ktrials41/wp2EventClasses.aspx?EventCode=Wooroloo_2017_41401