Curran trails as Townend sets high standard

Capt Geoff Curran trained his sights on Ollie Townend at the Johnson & Perrott Land Rover International Horse Trials in Ballindenisk yesterday, ruing that the Briton’s superb performance in the dressage had blown away what would generally be considered a respectable score from the Army officer.

Townend holds the top two places in the short-format CIC three-star with Imperial Master (40.2 penalties) and ODT Sonas Rovatio (43.5pens) at the Cork fixture, with Curran lying equal seventh on board The Jump Jet.

“I scored 48.9 penalties, which normally wouldn’t be too bad, but unfortunately, Ollie Townend set such a high standard, I am over eight penalties off the pace.”

Capt Curran has notched up “three top-five, three-star placings at international level this season”, with the reliable Jump Jet, so he is rightly hopeful of a good display in today’s cross-country.

His money, however, is on overnight third Italian Vittoria Panizzon, who was 11th in the London Olympics.

British-based Panizzon, who won the warm-up Castlemartyr Challenge on Tuesday, is on 44.4pens with her Beijing Olympics 17-year-old gelding Rock Model and, according to Capt Curran, “she’s very fast and the time is tight and will play a big part” in deciding who leads at the close of play today.

Townend and Panizzon, who also heads the CCI two-star, cannot afford complacency, though, with three Irish ladies, Tipperary’s Katie O’Sullivan (Kilpatrick Dancer), Sarah Ennis (Sugar Brown Babe) and Bandon’s Patricia Ryan (Tullineaskey Hi Ho) well within striking distance.

Sharing seventh with Capt Curran is Steven Smith on Fernando.

The Armagh man’s declaration that he was “happy” proved to be relative, as he would have been happier for the marking of one dressage judge.

“I’d like to pick his mind... and ask him what he was looking for, if only for my own education,” said Smith.

While many feel the cross-country in both three-star classes are a tough examination, he was not fazed.

“It’s big, flowing and is well presented. It’s very fair, with not too many complications. Time, though, will be very influential, so riders will have to be bold in their approach and take out strides where possible,” said Smith, who had clinched the Red Mills Superleague with the 13-year-old Fernando even before last weekend’s final leg at Scarvagh.

The CIC three-star is novel in that it boasts the €50,000 Goresbridge Go For Gold bonus prize if the winning horse/rider combination goes on to win next year’s long-format contest. The concept earned high praise from Smith, who described prizemoney in eventing in general as “embarrassing”.

“You would have thought such an incentive would have attracted a bigger foreign entry, but it provides an opportunity for the Irish, who must grab it with both hands,” said Smith.

Sarah Ennis and BLM Diamond Delux are top of the 12-strong leaderboard in the long-format CCI three-star and she believes the cross-country will definitely “shake up the field”.

Her 45.2pens puts her five ahead of Belgium’s Constantin van Rijckevorsel (Goodwins Reef), with Katie O’Sullivan (Lowhill Blackout) in third on 52pens.

Overnight leader in the CIC two-star is the aforementioned Patricia Ryan (Lady Chatterbox), with her husband Michael Ryan (Ballylynch Skyport) in third behind American Elisabeth Halliday-Sharp (Newmarket Malt).

Today’s cross-country marks the second phase in competition, with tomorrow’s show jumping deciding the prizes.