Stunning makes good start

Genevieve Murphy
Thursday 07 September 2000 00:00 BST
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William Fox-Pitt and Tamarillo will be bidding for their third win of the year when they compete in the Blenheim Petplan International Horse Trials, where the first full day of dressage starts this morning.

William Fox-Pitt and Tamarillo will be bidding for their third win of the year when they compete in the Blenheim Petplan International Horse Trials, where the first full day of dressage starts this morning.

The eight-year-old, who is sired by a Polish thoroughbred, won the three-day event at Blarney in June before claiming the Intermediate Championship at Gatcombe last month.

"He has a lot of quality and he's quick and bold," Fox-Pitt said of Mary Guiness's home-bred horse, who will be having his first taste of a three-star contest.

Fox-Pitt also rides the former Mark Todd mount, Stunning, who is another horse going for his third victory of the year having won advanced classes at Cornbury and Brockenhurst Park.

Because of the large entry, Stunning was one of 23 horses who were obliged to do their dressage tests yesterday afternoon - and he proved the best of them finishing on a score of 47 penalties.

Polly Clark, who would have been one of Fox-Pitt's main rivals with the Scottish Open Champion Oscar, was forced to pull out yesterday because the horse was lame.

"Oscar rolled in his stable and banged a back leg on the door," Clark said yesterday. "He hit it so hard that the bolts came off the door, so it's not surprising that his leg is very sore."

Clayton Fredericks and his wife, Lucinda, will be riding two horses for Australia. Clayton's pair, Bound Along and Mr Pracatan, recently won at Gatcombe and Lulworth respectively. Lucinda's two include Rumpy Pumpy, who was a good winner at Brightling Park.

The course designer, Mike Etherington-Smith, who has been responsible for the Blenheim fences since the inaugural three-day event there in 1990, will not be around to see how they ride. He is already in Sydney, where he is responsible for the Olympic three-day event courses.

BLENHEIM PETPLAN INTERNATIONAL HORSE TRIALS (Woodstock, Oxon): Positions after first 23 horses in dressage: 1 Stunning (W Fox-Pitt, GB) 47.0 penalties; 2 Kilkenny (K McMullen, Can) 48.2; 3 Flying Hector (N Fox, GB) 53.0.

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