Plenty of time for Jonelle to analyse the track as she was so late in the class to go. Cosby Green was out early on Jos Ufo de Quiadam and Ufo set the pace for a great Chedington day with a clear just one second over the optimum time…pretty impressive for the little chestnut from Argentina at his first 5 star.
Luhmuhlen doesn’t have the massive fences that Badminton and Burghley do but it is technical and plenty of questions still to answer. The fence in the arena was probably the most influential, a big wide oxer to a turning question right by the massive crowd on steep angles and with a long one stride in between. Some were clever to fiddle two, most went for one and if the horses were not 100% honest, or trained, or the pace was wrong they paid the price with a 20. Allot of the track runs through the woods so shadows play a big part on a sunny day like today and time is never easy at this level.
Señor Crocodillo (Diego) has been pretty tricky to ride cross country for the last 9 months and he picked up a 20 at Blenheim at the plainest fence on the course when he shook his head at Jonelle and took away the stride and the distance. It’s not a nice feeling heading for a fixed cross country fence when you touch the rein and your horse flings his head up and violently from side to side and doesn’t even look at the fence and Jonelle wasn’t sure what to expect today. You wouldn’t have known it from her relaxed demeanour hanging at the closed circuit TV tent but that’s what nerves of steel look like.
For whatever reason today was a great day for Diego. Maybe it was Ufo’s bragging back at the barn ( I mean he has come a long way for a horse bred on the wrong side of the tracks so you couldn’t blame him!), maybe it was the titanium hood that Jonelle has been riding him in for the last couple of weeks, maybe he just grew up and decided to put his trust back in Jonelle but for whatever reason he blitzed around his first 5 star coming home with just 3.6 time. He did trigger a frangible pin at the in to the coffin which is massively annoying for 11 penalties which keeps him out of the top 10 but he doesn’t know he is carrying that and as far as I am aware Ufo cant read a scoreboard so he can brag himself in the barn now. He does still have a ‘conversation’ with Jonelle when she asks him to slow and collect but that sort of shaking his head is just resistance, as Jonelle says, that she can happily deal with! He was foot perfect through the arena fence on one stride and once he is into a combination he is now back to his old way of simply looking for the flags all the way through it.
It was really great to watch Jonelle on flying form and super to see Diego back on track. He is only 11 and has a whole big future at the top ahead of him.
And just a few horses after Diego, Cosby piloted Highly Suspicious (Puff) around his second start at 5 star and his first completion…home inside the time, one of just 4 horses to do so all day. It’s testament to Cosby’s ability and to Tim and Jonelle’s training that she sits in 5th and 9th place overnight.
Jonelle and Diego sit in 18th… thanks to the pin….but more importantly Diego joins the ranks of the 5 star horses in the yard and that is pretty special in itself.