Eventing
I know it’s a bit late, but I got more than a bit distracted by my very exciting news I announced yesterday! But here is the final part of my Olympic Eventing Summary I promised! (And it’s here before the dressage finishes… so it’s fine!)
Firstly, I have to congratulate Michael Jung for another Olympic Gold! This back to back win allows him to join a very small elite club alongside Mark Todd of Olympic back to back Eventing Golds! So that’s 2 elite clubs Jung has joined this year! (This was probably my most successful prediction of the Olympics!)
My team predictions weren’t quite as spot on. I only guessed one of the top 3 teams, Germany with Silver. However, New Zealand came 4th after a rather disappointing few rounds of show jumping and GB came 5th, recovering massively from their cross country phase. So I guess I wasn’t too far off the mark! But congratulations to the French team who won Gold and Australia who took Bronze.
Ex-Racehorses at Rio2016
Those of you who follow me on social media, may have seen several of my comments recently about the ex-racehorses I have been following at the Olympics. I am very pleased to say that both of them qualified for the final show jumping round and placed respectfully!
Blackfoot Mystery came 16th and was the second highest placing combination from the USA with Boyd Martin. He had 2 poles down in the qualifier and 3 down in the final. Which sounds a bit bad, but very few combinations didn’t have a pole or two down in at least one round. (The Legend Sir Mark Todd had 4 down in the qualifier… which knocked New Zealand out of the team medals. L ) But Boyd and Blackfoot finished on a score of 70.90. Which was only 30 off the leader.
Summon Up The Blood also did very well, placing just 2 spots below his fellow racehorse. He placed 18th with Carlos Parro and was the highest placed Brazilian horse. They were a bit messier in the jumping with 3 poles down in each round, giving them a finishing score of 75.30. But still, they came 18th out of 65 starters!
Both ex racehorses did exceptionally well, both completing the event and finishing within the top 3rd. It’s a fantastic bit of publicity for these super talented and adaptable horses.
Dressage
The first phase of dressage took place over the past 2 days and so far my predictions are looking good! Charlotte Dujardin rode straight to the top of the leader board with Valegro last night, which not only puts her in the lead for individual Gold, but also bumping Team GB into silver position just behind Germany. So it’s looking good for my guesses!
Carl Hester had an unfortunate spook with Nip Tuck, but recovered well. The Grand Prix Special starts today which is the final round for team dressage medals. Hopefully Nip Tuck finds his big boy pants and follows his stable mate’s (Valegro) example! Fiona and Spencer also had good tests and Team GB is looking very strong going into today.
Last Updated on 07/08/2018
