Lausanne (SUI), 18 November 2011 – FEI TV, the official FEI video platform, has a LIVE double bill in store this weekend.
FEI TV will be LIVE for Cross Country and Jumping at the second leg of the HSBC FEI Classics in Adelaide (AUS) AND at the fifth leg of the Rolex FEI World Cup Jumping in Stuttgart (GER) – full programme here:
Saturday 19th November
HSBC FEI Classics in Adelaide: Cross Country – LIVE from 02.10 GMT – 04.35 GMT (03.10 CET – 05.35 CET) 12.40 – 15.05 local time
– DELAYED LIVE from 09.00 GMT – 11.25 GMT (10.00 CET – 12.25 CET) 19.30 – 21.55 hrs local time
Megan Jones (AUS) in the lead after Dressage at HSBC FEI Classics in Adelaide. Jenny Barnes Photography/FEI.
Adelaide (AUS), 18 November 2011 – Experience leads the way after the Dressage phase of the Deloitte Australian International 3 Day Event, the second leg of the HSBC FEI Classics 2012 series calendar.
Crowd favourite and home town girl Megan Jones heads the leader board after the Dressage in the 4* competition riding her home-bred Kirby Park Irish Jester.
“It was exciting to be back at Adelaide with Jester,” commented Jones after her posting a winning score of 43.30. It was far from his best Dressage mark, but Jones was delighted to be in the driving seat again with her 2005 Adelaide 4* winner.
And relief it must be, as the 2006 world and 2008 Olympic team silver medalist almost died after a severe bout of travel sickness on the way to the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky last year.
Now, with five months preparation time and two pre-Adelaide competitions, this weekend will prove the test to determine the possibility of the 18-year-old Jester having another crack at the Olympic Games. At the end of day one Jones was glad “he remembered how to do it”.
HSBC FEI Classics 2012 current leader William Fox-Pitt on Cross Country day at Les Etoiles de Pau (FRA), the season opener.
Lausanne (SUI), 16 November 2011 – The Australians and New Zealanders are grasping their chance to capitalise on the HSBC FEI Classics, which offers the single biggest prize in Eventing, at the second leg of the 2012 season taking place this weekend at the Adelaide International 3 Day Event in South Australia (18-20 November).
This is the first time Adelaide has been part of the HSBC FEI Classics, which incorporates the world’s six CCI4*s. The 2011/2012 season will then travel to Kentucky (USA) next spring and climax at Burghley (GBR) in September.
“The Australian International 3 Day Event is the country’s ultimate equestrian competition,” explained Event Director and dual Olympic gold medalist Gillian Rolton (AUS).
“Adelaide has hosted this hallmark event for the last thirteen years and this year we’re ecstatic to be hosting the prestigious HSBC FEI Classics for the very first time.
Lausanne (SUI),16 October 2011 – William Fox-Pitt (GBR) showed the amazing strength of his horsepower when his exciting young horses Oslo and Lionheart finished first and third at Les Etoiles des Pau (FRA), the final leg of the HSBC FEI Classics 2011.
However, it was the unstoppable Mary King (GBR) who claimed the 150,000 USD prize, the biggest single award in Eventing, as HSBC FEI Classics champion for 2011. She clinched the title with a magnificent clear Jumping round on Imperial Cavalier, which elevated her six places to fourth.
King has been placed no lower than eighth at all five of the HSBC FEI Classics events this year, which is a remarkable achievement. She is the first woman to win the title since the series started in 2008 and has kept it in British hands for the fourth consecutive year.
Christopher Burton on Holstein Park Leilani in the lead into Jumping at HSBC FEI Classics in Pau. Image: Kit Houghton/FEI
Lausanne (SUI),15 October 2011 – Christopher Burton (AUS) produced a great Cross Country performance on Holstein Park Leilani to keep his Dressage lead at Les Etoiles de Pau (FRA), final leg of the HSBC FEI Classics 2011, but he has no margin for error in tomorrow’s Jumping phase as one fence covers the top eight riders and a nail-biting finale is guaranteed for tomorrow.
William Fox-Pitt (GBR) was masterful in steering all three of his horses around inside the optimum time to finish in the top 10, with the two nine-year-olds, Oslo and Lionheart, second and sixth, and Macchiato ninth.
Clayton Fredericks (AUS), the joint Dressage leader, accrued 1.2 time penalties on Bendigo, the horse competing in his first CCI4*, to drop to third. The Ground Jury took 0.8 penalties off his original score after he protested that a steward raking the ground had forced him to take avoiding action.
Lausanne (SUI),14 October 2011 – Australian riders head the leaderboard after Dressage at Les Etoiles de Pau (FRA), the final leg of the 2011 HSBC FEI Classics, which has attracted its most competitive field yet – 69 riders representing 17 nations.
Clayton Fredericks, currently ninth in the HSBC FEI Classics, and his compatriot Christopher Burton, who is making his first visit to this popular event at the foot of the Pyrenees, are in equal first place on 43.7 penalties apiece.
Fredericks, whose last CCI4* victory was at Rolex Kentucky in 2007, is riding the 11-year-old Bendigo lll, the winner of Saumur CCI3* this year but a debutant at this level. Burton rides the experienced Holstein Park Leilani, winner of Adelaide CCI4* in 2008.
“Bendigo felt really rideable today,” commented Fredericks, who will be able to get an early feel of tomorrow’s Cross Country on his first ride, the mare Laurent Dunges Rose, on which he is lying 27th on 54.0 penalties.
William Fox-Pitt claims record sixth Burghley win. Images: FEI
Lausanne (SUI), 11 October 2011 – Two British riders, long-time team mates and friends, will do battle for the HSBC FEI Classics 2011 top spot this weekend (13-16 October) at Les Etoiles de Pau (FRA), which is also the 2012 season opener.
Athletes from 17 nations will compete at the popular CCI4* in the shadow of the Pyrenees, where they have the unique opportunity to secure points for the 2012 season which for the first time includes Australia’s premier event, the Adelaide International Horse Trials (18-20 November).
HSBC FEI Classics 2011 – closely fought battle
Only series leader Mary King (GBR) or compatriot William Fox-Pitt can win this year’s HSBC FEI Classics and with just 13 points between them it will be an intense finale.
Fox-Pitt, who won the HSBC FEI Classics in 2008 and 2010, can only beat King if he wins and she finishes lower than eighth. So while he heads into Pau as the world number one in the HSBC Rankings – this time 13 points ahead of Mary and with the prospect of receiving the 50,000 USD bonus – he is leaving no stone unturned in his quest to become Series Champion and has taken advantage of Pau’s decision to allow riders to compete with three horses.
William Fox-Pitt (GBR) made history with a record sixth Burghley victory when winning on Parklane Hawk with just a single Jumping time penalty to add to his Dressage score. Photo: Kit Houghton/FEI.
4 September 2011 – William Fox-Pitt (GBR) earned a standing ovation from the rain-soaked crowd as he clinched a record sixth title at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials (GBR), second-last leg of the HSBC FEI Classics.
Fox-Pitt showed all his famous finesse and calmness as he conjured a clear round with just one time fault on the sodden ground from Catherine Witt’s Parklane Hawk, an 11-year-old New Zealand Thoroughbred by Grosvenor.
He has now beaten the five Burghley victories apiece for Ginny Elliot (GBR) and Mark Todd (NZL), and has equalled Lucinda Green’s (GBR) Badminton record of six wins on six different horses.
“This ranks as one of the best achievements of my life,” said a visibly emotional Fox-Pitt afterwards.
“I pretend to look relaxed, but deep down this really matters to me. It’s such an honour to win six times and to be among such legends as Mark, Ginny and Lucinda – and Mark’s still going, so perhaps he’ll beat me next time!
“I can’t believe what’s happened today. The horse was superb because the conditions were against us. I’m so lucky to have him to ride.”
Lausanne (SUI), 3 September 2011 – William Fox-Pitt (GBR) has the slimmest of leads to win a record sixth Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials (GBR), second-last leg of the HSBC FEI Classics, after a thrilling day’s cross-country.
The day was a spectacle of bold riding and flying horses, and Fox-Pitt gave an early masterclass on the New Zealand former racehorse Parkland Hawk, winner of the Blenheim CCI3* last year but short on mileage this year.
Fox-Pitt, who said Parklane Hawk felt as if he had “grown wings” when launching into space off the precipitous drop at the Leaf Pit (fence 4), commented: “It’s a good course for a genuine horse. It was massive all the way, but you never expect a holiday at Burghley.”
Fox-Pitt, who warns that Jumping is Parklane Hawk’s weakest phase, cannot afford an error in tomorrow’s Jumping phase, for the cost of a single rail covers the first four horses after Cross-Country.
“I’m going to enjoy the moment because anything could happen tomorrow,” he said.
New Zealanders Andrew Nicholson, on Avebury, and last year’s winner Caroline Powell on the foot-perfect veteran Lenamore are second and third, ahead of HSBC FEI Classics leader Mary King on her home-bred mare Kings Temptress.
Simone Deitermann (GER) and Free Easy NRW took a slender lead after Dressage at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials. Photo: Kate Houghton/FEI.
Lausanne (SUI), 2 September 2011 – Simone Deitermann (GER) and Free Easy NRW are well known for their ability in the Dressage arena, but the German rider still said it felt “amazing” to be in the lead on her first visit to the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials (GBR), second-last leg of the HSBC FEI Classics.
“My horse was quite nervous,” she explained, “and he is not used to performing on a grass arena.”
Despite that, an excellent performance resulted in a score of 39.3 penalties, just 0.4 ahead of the first-day leader William Fox-Pitt (GBR) on Parklane Hawk.
Deitermann, 30, who was 12th at Badminton last year, missed out on the thrilling German domination at the HSBC FEI European Championships last weekend because she and Free Easy NRW had experienced problems in the build-up, including a fall at Bramham CCI3* (GBR).
“This is my chance to qualify for the London Olympic Games,” explained Deitermann, who was third after Dressage at the FEI Alltech World Equestrian Games in Kentucky last year before suffering a Cross Country fall at the last fence.
She has walked the Cross Country at Burghley with German team trainer Chris Bartle and says: “It is beautiful, but I think it will be quite tough for me.”
Lausanne (SUI), 18 November 2011 – FEI TV, the official FEI video platform, has a LIVE double bill in store this weekend.
