Australian 2010 World Equestrian Games (WEG) representative Brett Parbery has taken out the Grand Prix during the first day’s competition of the 2015 Sydney CDI on 6 May 2015. Brilliant sunshine greeted competitors and officials at day one, which saw riders compete in the international Prix St Georges, Young Riders Team test and the Grand Prix.
Competition was fierce in the Grand Prix test, with 25 combinations from Australia and overseas lining up to compete in front of judges from Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the USA.
Brett won the class on 13-year-old DP Weltmieser, owned by Susan Duddy, with 69% and was full of praise for the gelding’s performance.
“He was great, he’s a great horse and he’s getting better all the time,” Brett said. “He’s getting confident, he’s getting stronger. There’s still things there I know we can do better. But the beauty, thankfully, of all the horses I have at the moment is they all try. They all try for me and they’re all happy to give it a shot, and if they’re making honest mistakes just by trying a bit too hard, well, you can’t knock them for that.”
Second in the Grand Prix was Mary Hanna on Umbro, who scored 68.940%, with Judy Dierks on Diamond Star third with 68.700%.
Twenty-eight combinations lined up for the Prix St Georges competition held in the indoor arena, but it was Australian Olympian Rachael Downs who topped the class with an impressive 72.605% on board Silbermond.
Owned by John Potter, the 9-year-old gelding by Sir Donnerhall was more than three per cent clear of second placegetters Lisa Martin and her seven-year-old mare First Famous, who scored 69.237 after only recently stepping up into Prix St Georges and Inter I competition.
Photo © Franz Venhaus
Related Link
Scores 2015 CDI Sydney