Brett Parbery made his mark on the first day in his first major competition on Victory Salute since the WEG in Kentucky, winning the Grand Prix with 71.30%. However the queen of Sydney dressage, Rachael Sanna, who has won more titles than anyone at this particular event over the years, took the Grand Prix Special on Friday. So the showdown between these two very tough competitors on Saturday night for the Grand Prix Freestyle title was highly anticipated.  

During the day leading up to the main event people took advantage of the breaks in rain to do a bit of shopping at the Trade Village. Despite the wet conditions there were plenty of shoppers, especially for trendy wellies! The Intermediate I Freestyle was the crowd warm-up for the GP Freestyle and this was taken in great style by Maree Tomkinson on the fabulous mare Diamantina. At first Diamantina was having none of the video person in the corner of the arena and put on a show but once Maree got the mare’s mind back on the job, it was a wonderful display of controlled energy and talent. They won with a whopping score of 70.80% with Rozzie Ryan taking second on the ex-eventer GV Bullwinkle and Rebecca Walshe on XL Overtime in third place.

Then it was time for the big event, the Hamilton Island Grand Prix Freestyle. The shock score of the night was Heath Ryan coming last on Regardez Moi with 59.20% - with all 5 judges close in their low marks. It must have been a bad night for Heath but he was seen afterwards chatting and smiling – as always the professional but he must have some thinking to do about that one! At the other end of the scale, Rachael Sanna blew the international judges away to score 74.25% on Bev Edwards’ Jaybee Alabaster. Despite a bad back (I was sitting close to the arena and you could see Rachael grimacing as she settled in the saddle to start), Rachael showed how strong she can be and performed a fantastic test. Brett Parbery came on straight after her so the judges had a direct comparison and although Brett’s test was very good, there were some minor errors and he finished in second place on 73.70%. This was the last time that he and Victory Salute would perform this particular Kur as they start to work on a new Freestyle. Mary Hanna took third place on 69.47%, just edging out one of the two New Zealand riders who were competing here, Penny Castle on Gymstar One who has been having a successful time at the Sydney CDI. Heath’s wife Rozzie had a good score with Jive Magic on 68.45% and Chantal Wigan was sixth with 66.15%. This combination had a few hiccups but the horse shows real talent

 

The large crowd in the seats, stands and VIP area showed their appreciation as the riders performed an exhuberant presentation lap and quadrille before heading out of the brightly lit purpose built indoor arena - back out into the rain!