The ground was saturated on arrival at Pau at the beginning of the week but today must have been one of the wettest cross country days in years as it was pouring rain when the competition started and not a single umbrella went down for the whole day. It was utterly relentless and the gallop lanes at Pau are pretty narrow which doesn’t help anyone find any better ground and it is a track of three parts as the footing on the outside of the race course is different to the footing on the inside. You start off outside, cross over to the training grounds then come back onto the outside.
The OC had removed a total of 9 fences plus 29A which had knocked around 2 minutes off the time. For a comparison, Le Lion d’Angers 6 year old champs was 9 minutes last week and now Pau 5 star was similar but it was a smart decision as not a single horse got near the time allowed all day. Fastest of the day was Caroline Harris with 10 time, second fastest was our own Tayla Mason and Centennial (Chase) with 10.4 but sadly a dropped MIM clip added 11 so instead of Tayla lying 2nd overnight she is in 12th.
The next closest in time was around 17 and it was a slog for sure. The usual complexity of a 5 star had been removed with some of the jumps and the combinations coming home didn’t ask the usual 5 star questions but the footing was so horrible to gallop through they certainly did the right thing. Tim was commentating on the live Pau channel first up this morning and it wasn’t a pretty picture then and you had to feel for him with hours to wait until he went with his precious Jarillo (Milo) at his first 5 star.
Riders rode with their heads and there were only actually 2 withdrawals before cross country which was impressive. Tim and Milo set out in the final quartet of riders and as Jonelle said, Milo headed out ballooning fences ” as he is so naive he thinks this 4 star is easy” which is pretty true of any first time 5 star horse! Milo is not bred for slogging round National Hunt tracks in the mud, he is a fancy pants warmblood and Tim held his hand when he got tired late in the track. Milo was pretty impressive in the mud though, he didn’t lose his action and he didn’t lose his jump, I think the comment of the day was from Cam Price who said ” it must be like driving a Porsche around a Go Kart track” which was pretty spot on. He came into the main arena, perked up with the noise of the crowd and went through the flags with 22.4 time to wind up in 10th spot. What a ride from Tim and what an impressive debut at the level for Milo.
They sit on 49.6 with the leader on 40.3. The showjumping at Pau is one of the biggest on the circuit and Milo is one of the best jumpers in the field so it’s sure not over yet!
Without doubt one of the wettest, coldest days eventing in 2024 and boy, have we had some wet cold days this year. Just one more phase for team Price tomorrow before the end of the season and a shout out to all the grooms today, especially Kerryn, as days like today are a little short on fun.