Slater succeeds at Sydney Royal

Sharon Slater and CP Ulixes

The first combination to go, Slater and Ulixes set the bar high when they produced a faultless and seemingly effortless performance around the Werner Deeg designed course.

Only two other combinations were able to replicate this in the first round and leading into the deciding round Slater shared the lead with Ally Lamb (Penrose) and Jamie Kermond (Valhalla).  

“It’s a thrill to win here, I won this class many years ago with a horse call Jox back in 97’ so it’s a long time between wins and I’m very pleased with this horse and very thankful to win. Congratulations to all the other competitors, I think it was a great class,” she said.

In the second round Jamie Kermond riding Valhalla picked up four penalties which gave Slater some breathing space but she needed to produce a clear round to be assured of victory. 

"I thought I would see how my horse jumped the first two fences and if he felt then like he was going to leave them up I thought I might just go for the clean and he felt quite good over the first two so I thought I’d go for the clean, so I was either going to be first or probably ninth,” she said.  

With Valhalla, Kermond ended the day in second and with Yandoo Laughton’s Legacy he produced the only other clear second round to move into third.  

At the end of the day the other joint leader Ally Lamb finished in seventh while last year’s winner Tom McDermott (Romantic Dream) finished in fourth.

The first eight rounds of the Australian League of the FEI World Cup Jumping series is also doubling as the qualifying series for this year’s Be the Influence Equestrian Grand Final.  The top 15 riders on the series leaderboard following eight rounds will receive an invite to contest this year’s final which will be held at EQUITANA Sydney from 7-10 November.