The long weekend Equimillion extravaganza at the Sydney International Equestrian Centre has come to an end with Racing NSW throwing everything at creating a spectator friendly event showcasing the talents of off the track thoroughbreds.
It’s the fourth year of this event and while I can only speak about the showjumping section of the event in which I compete, changes to the programming and the resurfacing of the Olympic arena have made it a lot more attractive to competitors.
The jumping events this year were run in a world cup style format with one round followed by a second round for the clears coming out of the first.
This was a huge improvement on previous events where the classes were split making it a very long and very punishing day for anyone involved, as well as being hard to follow and a nightmare for spectators, so big tick for that!
The dilapidated substandard surface of the old Olympic arena was also a big bogey for anyone with a nice horse, but the resurfacing this year has revitalised this space with Equestrian Australia now regularly running World Cup events on it jumping up to 1.60, so again a big tick!
For anyone competing in the jumping here, you need to bring your A Game as everyone is trying to win and they ride like demons with big prizemoney that is unheard of in the equestrian world for lower level height classes.
Put it this way, when I rode at the Willinga Park Jumping Classic (it’s a World Cup show) last month and won a 95cm class I was rewarded with $120.
Yesterday, Pie and I had our time to shine and with a combined age of 77, we did indeed compete like demons and grabbed third in the 90cm amateur to claim a princely $4,000.
Winner of that class was Alisa Moir on her 7YO Savabeel gelding Cigar Bar, while second was Rachel King on Military Mission (IRE), a high class Group winning stayer that Rachel rode in the 2023 Melbourne Cup finishing tenth.
In the 1m class, our local South Coast hero Tony Priestley was a deserved winner riding Sharilea Hitchcock’s brilliant chestnut mare Queens Will Play.
The nine year old mare by Sizzling was the dominant performer at the South Coast ag shows in classes up to 1.10 this year and has been virtually untouchable since switching from an unremarkable career as a racehorse to jumping.
Makaylah Fenwick won both the 1.10 and 1.20 classes on 14YO Manhattan Rain gelding The Garrett, a horse she has retrained and competed now for quite a number of years, my how time flies, I remember when he started off.
The Garrett is one of a team of OTT horses Makaylah competes at shows and for a rider like her, Equimillion is the event that pays to keep the show on the road.
The great shame is that there is only one a year!
