Ennis has no complaints with fourth-place finish

Sarah Ennis had no complaints after her rise up the leaderboard saw her place fourth with BLM Diamond Delux yesterday in the feature class at Tattersall’s International Horse Trials.

This was despite the fact time faults in yesterday’s show jumping denied her going one better in the CCI three-star contest.

“He jumped so well, it’s hard to be disappointed with fourth place. I took too much time between the first and second fences. I would have placed third if I had made the time, but no regrets. The horse is super and, in fact, Pippa Funnell and several others offered to take him home.”

Ennis was disappointed with her dressage score of 53.1 penalties — “I thought the judges were a little harsh” — but made up for it when rising four places to fifth with one of only six clears on Saturday’s cross-country. Despite yesterday’s aberration in the show jumping, she rose another place with a finishing score of 55.1pens, in the class that saw Britain’s Pippa Funnell produce a show jumping clear on Billy Beware to finish ahead of Australian Bill Levett (Improvise). Funnell also rode Billy Landretti to third place.

Levett went one better in the short-format three-star with Silk Stone

Ennis’s medium-term focus is the European Championships and she also has the 2012 “Mare of the Year” Sugar Brown Babe under consideration. The 11-year-old has been selected as part of an Irish team for next month’s World Equestrian Festival in Aachen, Germany.

In Compiegne, France, Roland Tong won his first international dressage grand prix yesterday riding Sarah and Keith Wrigley’s Westphalian gelding Pompidou. Tong, who declared for Ireland last year (his mother is from Co Down), performed a routine to the music of Peter Pan, earning 71.275% in the freestyle contest.

Tong, who previously represented the UK, has already qualified for the European Dressage Championships in Denmark in August.

Meanwhile, according to worldofshowjumping.com, Germany will not be able to earn any points in the Furusiyya Nations Cup Series Division 1 and move on to the final after it withdrew from Friday’s Swiss nations cup over heavy rain.

The website, quoting the International Equestrian Federation’s director of jumping, John Roche of Ireland, said the governing body was of the opinion force majeure was not present allowing Germany to pull out: “Force Majeure would be something that would prevent them from participating, but the team is here and they have decided not to participate,” said Roche. “Next year, it is foreseen in the rules that there will be 10 teams participating in division one. So there is a chance that Germany will remain in division one next year.”