Ph. Hickstead
The Equestrian.com Hickstead Derby Meeting started Thursday, June 23rd with a strong field of home riders. The Bunn Leisure Derby Tankard CSI 4*, the biggest competition of the day, produced a lineup of English riders in the top five placings of the class.
It was England’s Tracy Priest riding the Dutch 9-year-old gelding Caristo VDL (Silverstone X Quick Star) who scored the best time in 36.27 seconds to earn the 1st place in a 7 horses jump off.
“I’ve had him since he was a five-year-old and these last few weeks he’s been jumping unbelievably,” she said. “We kept just missing out, but I really believed I could win it.”
Priest also picked up national wins on Wednesday, winning the Senior Foxhunter first round, and the 1.20m. Hickstead Novice Championship.
Very close to her was Phillip Miller who also tried his best on the Anglo European bred 9-year-old mare Unbelievable Lady (Unbelievable Darco X Hamilton), just 0.68 seconds slower to finish in 36.95 seconds and settling for a 2nd place.
The third position was for another home rider, William Funnell riding the Anglo European 15-year-old stallion Billy Congo (Vechta X Animo Elite) finishing in 38.26 seconds. Dale Burnham rode Romanella Gold to 4th place in 38.56 seconds while 5th place and the last double clear was of the day was by James Hughes riding Peiter VI in 41.83 seconds.
See the full results list at this link.