Australian stock horse wins Adelaide four-star

Australian eventer Jessica Manson has won the second leg of the FEI Classics series in Adelaide, competing on a stock horse.

‘Bit shocked’

Jessica and Legal Star (aka Trumby the Brumby) produced the best cross-country run, adding just 2.8 time penalties to their score. This saw the pair rise from sixth place to the top of the leaderboard.

They went on to jump clear in the final phase to secure the win with a score of 64.60pen.

“I was a bit shocked really,” said the 22-year-old from Western Australia. “I had three down last year and that was on my mind when I walked the course, but when I rode in I just focused on the job I had to do.”

Bad weather

Olympic rider and former Adelaide champion Megan Jones was second on Kirby Park Allofasudden (70.70pen), while Soigne Jackson took third place with her ex-racehorse Gold (95.90pen).

Megan was in the lead after the dressage, but poor weather conditions saw her come home from the cross-country with 19.2 time penalties.

The course was stopped for around 20 minutes to repair the footing coming out of the lake. During that time torrential rain fell on the course, making the going even more difficult for the second half of the field – which included Megan.

Low entries

The only Southern hemisphere four-star event did not attract high entries, with only 14 horses starting.

Eleven of these finished, with only six scoring below the 100pen mark.

Six of the best

The FEI Classicsis a series that encompasses the six four-star eventing competitions on the calendar.The next leg isn’t until the spring, at Kentucky (23-26 April 2015), this will be followed by Badminton in May, Luhmühlen in June and finally Burghley in September.

At the end of the seriers, the five riders who have collected the highest number of points will receive a bonus, with the champion winning $40,000 (£28,000).