How the Aussies finished up at Pau
Lucinda Fredericks and Flying Finish
Photograph:Guillaume Beguin
Chris Burton and Tempranillo were one the standout performers on the final day of Les Etoiles de Pau CCI4* producing one of only seven clear rounds among the 50 horses which remained in the competition.
They ended the event on a score of 73.2 which put them in 22nd position overall.
Burton was delighted to end the competition and the northern hemisphere Eventing season on a high note.
“Absolutely thrilled with Pea's (Tempranillo's) performance in the showjumping today. I haven't had many horses who can jump like she did at the end of a three day. What a fun and exciting way to end the season,” Burton said.
Dressage leader Lucinda Fredericks ended the event in 36th place after picking up eight jumping penalties in the show jumping phase.
"Christi (Flying Finish) jumped a lovely round but had two unlucky rails over a very decent SJ track. A lot has been learned this week and it's good to take a happy, sound horse home at the end of a tough three day event,” she said.
After an energetic cross country round Murray Lamperd decided to rest Under the Clocks and withdrew him prior to the second horse inspection.
27 October 2013
Pau cross country course proves a challenge for the Aussies
Despite maintaining a fast pace around the course dressage leaders Lucinda Fredericks (AUS) and Flying Finish are out of contention after a frustrating run-out right at the end of the course at an influential complex.
Fredericks now finds herself in 38th position just behind fellow Australian Chris Burton and Tempranillo who is on 33rd position after they came unstuck at the same fence.
There were no run-outs for Murray Lamperd and Under the Clocks, just four time penalties which elevated them to 14th position.
William Fox-Pitt occupies first second and third places after each of his three horses Seacookie, Cool Mountain (second) and Neuf des Coeurs (third) went brilliantly and finished inside the optimum time of 11 minutes 48 seconds.
26 October 2013
Fredericks makes it a flying start at Pau
Australia's Lucinda Fredericks takes the lead in the first FEI Classics of the season at the Le Etoiles de Pau.
The first competition of the FEI Classics™ 2013/2014 season has been billed as a “battle of the giants” between Andrew Nicholson (NZL) and William Fox-Pitt (GBR), ranked first and second in the HSBC Rider Rankings, but Australia’s Lucinda Fredericks has swept ahead of the pair of them after the Dressage phase at Les Etoiles de Pau (FRA).
Fredericks, always a graceful and accomplished performer in this phase, was the only rider to break the 40-penalty barrier with a score of 39.2 on Flying Finish. However, the next six horses, three of them ridden by Fox-Pitt, are within five penalties of the leading score.
Flying Finish, a 13-year-old gelding by Candillo, is Fredericks’ top horse; they were second at Luhmühlen (GER) and members of the Australian Olympic team in 2012. This year, after a slow start to the season, due to Fredericks breaking a collarbone in March, they were 10th at Luhmühlen, but both horse and rider will have honed their fitness since then and are sure to be making a determined assault on Pierre Michelet’s Cross Country course tomorrow.
“Pierre is certainly testing us,” commented Fredericks, who is competing at Pau for the first time since 2002. “I’ve never ridden in the four-star here but the advantage of going later is that I’ll be able to watch. The downside is that I’ll have more time to get nervous.
“I think the first and last sections of the course will be a lot slower than the middle part [on the racecourse] and as my horse isn’t a thoroughbred, I can’t switch on the turbo, so I need to make a plan.”
Fredericks said the Dressage was “the easy bit. I enjoy it and I’m lucky because my horse has a good brain. So often as a horse gets more experienced they can blow up in the atmosphere, but he settles. I was a bit weak in my halts. I don’t know if it’s because I had practised them too much or not enough, but to do three bad halts and still be leading isn’t bad!”
Fox-Pitt, a three-time winner of the HSBC FEI Classics™ (in 2008, 2010 and 2012) and a winner at Pau in 2011 on Oslo, performed the remarkable feat of achieving three Dressage marks less than two penalties apart to lie second, third and equal fourth.
He is second on Seacookie TSF, runner-up at Kentucky (USA) in April, third on the 2010 World individual silver medalist Cool Mountain, and equal fourth on Neuf des Coeurs, third at Luhmühlen in June but retired early on the Cross Country at Burghley (GBR) last month.
Fox-Pitt was among many riders to welcome the new arena surface at Pau. “The horses seemed to go very nicely on it and now there’s a level playing field,” he said.
Of his three rides, he was particularly pleased with Cool Mountain, back in major competition for the first time since a member of Britain’s bronze medal team at the 2011 HSBC FEI European Eventing Championships in Luhmühlen.
Last year’s Pau winner Andrew Nicholson, the 2012/13 HSBC FEI Classics series champion, is also three-handed at Pau and is in close contention. He is in equal fourth with Fox-Pitt on his Kentucky winner, the black Spanish-bred Quimbo, and 10th on his Luhmuhlen winner, the big Irish-bred grey Mr Cruise Control. Viscount George, competing in his first CCI4*, is in 29th place on 51 penalties.
Nicholson has competed at Pau every year since the event started in 1990. “I love coming here,” he said. “It’s a very different competition to what we have in the UK, the site is much flatter and more compact, but the organisers do a great job here and it’s good to ride at different types of event.”
Lucy Wiegersma (GBR) is a regular visitor to Pau and returns with her top horse, Simon Porloe, seventh in 2011. They are currently in sixth place on 43.8, fractionally ahead of Phillip Dutton (USA) on his new ride Mr Medicott. The horse’s former rider, Frank Ostholt (GER), who won an Olympic team gold medal on him in 2008, is eighth on his 2011 European individual bronze medalist, Little Paint. Maxime Livio (Cathar de Gamel) is best of the home side in ninth place.
Two more former Pau CCI4* winners are in the field: the 2010 winner, Andreas Dibowski (GER, is 11th on FRH Fantasia and 35thon FRH Butts Leon; his compatriot Bettina Hoy (the winner in 2008) is much further down the order than usual at this stage, in equal 60th on Designer and 68th on Lanfranco TSF, but she will no doubt be relieved that she managed to contain Lanfranco’s notorious rebelliousness in this phase.
Fox-Pitt and Neuf des Coeurs will be first out on the Cross Country course tomorrow at 12.15pm CET. Watch all the Cross Country and Jumping action live on FEI TV www.feitv.org and keep up to date with the scores throughout on www.event-pau.fr.
Results after Dressage
1 Lucinda Fredericks/Flying Finish (AUS) 39.2
2 William Fox-Pitt/Seacookie TSF (GBR) 41.5
3 William Fox-Pitt/Cool Mountain (GBR) 42.2
4 = William Fox-Pitt/Neuf des Coeurs (GBR) 43.2
4 = Andrew Nicholson/Quimbo (NZL) 43.2
6 Lucy Wiegersma/Simon Porloe (GBR) 43.8
7 Phillip Dutton/Mr Medicott (USA) 44.2
8 Frank Ostholt/Little Paint (GER) 44.7
9 Maxime Livio/Cathar de Gamel (FRA) 44.8
10 Andrew Nicholson/Mr Cruise Control (NZL) 45.3
24 October 2013
Among the 76 horse and rider combinations battling it out for title honours are Australians Chris Burton, Lucinda Fredericks and Murray Lamperd.
After winning Hartpury CIC3* earlier in the year, Chris Burton and Tempranillo are making the step up to CCI4* for the first time.
Fredericks will pair with her London 2012 Olympic mount Flying Finish while Lamperd is competing with Under the Clocks.
Each of the Aussies appear late in the order and will all take to the dressage arena on Friday.
Competition will run through until Sunday with results available on the event website, http://www.event-pau.fr/en/homepage/
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