Lucy takes the title at Blenheim

By Justine Thompson

Event diary

14 September 2009 14:00

Lucy Wiegersma and Granntevka Prince won the Blenheim International three star at the weekend, following a nail-biting finale.

“It is very gratifying to win an event of this stature, especially on a fantastic young horse like Prince,” said Lucy, whose next stop will be the European Championships in Fontainebleau, France next week with Woodfalls Inigo Jones.

“Emily and Drivetime wouldn’t be the ones you want sitting right behind you going into the show jumping as they consistently jump well,” said Lucy, who was delighted with the way the nine-year-old went throughout the event.

Emily Baldwin and Drivetime remained in second place from start to finish. Eight time penalties on the cross-country and a pole down in the show jumping hampered the chance of any rise up the leaderboard.

“I was disappointed to have a fence down as he is usually a very good jumper, but I was a bit slow to the parallel and he just had the back rail down,” said Emily, who won the CIC*** classes at both Belton and Hartpury earlier this year.

Izzy Taylor, from Aynho made a meteoric rise after the dressage, moving from 31st to third place riding the Honourable Mrs Lorna Schuster’s homebred mare, Briarlands Matilda. She was also presented with the Marlborough trophy for the highest placed rider who lives within 50 miles of Blenheim Palace.

Izzy added nothing to a dressage score of 53.9. The only other person to keep a clean sheet throughout the competition was Melanie Wilder who climbed from 33rd to sixth place during the course of the competition.