Big win for Edgecombe and Andrea

VICTORY-BOUND: Brooke Edgecombe and LT Holst Andrea jump their way to victory in the grand prix at Showgrounds Park on Sunday. Picture by Paul Rickard

Waipukurau rider Brooke Edgecombe finally got her wish when she scooped up a garden seat as the winner of the Equissage Horse Grand Prix at the Larsen Sawmilling Jumping and Show Hunter Championships on Sunday.

“I have been waiting for 25 years for this chair,” she said.

Edgecombe and her well-performed mare LT Holst Andrea were the only combination to go clear in the opening round of the grand prix and added a rail in the second but held on for the win.

It was the third grand prix win of the season for the 11-year-old mare, who this month won the FEI World Cup (NZ) final and placed second in the series.

For Edgecombe, Sunday's victory was her first grand prix win at the January jumping show, an event she has been coming to since she was a youngster riding ponies.

“It was tough enough out there,” she said of the Heather Macdonald-designed course.

Edgecombe had plenty of praise for Andrea too.

“She is really careful and brave and tries super-hard every time,” she said.

Edgecombe took responsibility for the mid-course rail in the second round.

“We got there all right but I probably pressed her through the front rail a bit — it was my mistake and I should have just let her jump the jump. Everyone has to have a bad day but hers are usually just four faults, so I can't really complain.”

Next on the agenda for the combination is the boutique Takapoto Estate jumping event in Cambridge and the Horse of the Year Show, where Edgecombe has her sights set on the Olympic Cup (for showjumper of the year).

The win topped off a successful show for the Edgecombes. Brooke had already won the 1.4m jump on Andrea and placed first-equal in the five-year-old with LT Holst Helen. Her husband Oliver took the quinella in the seven-year-old event and won the 1.25m.

“It's been a great show for us,” Brooke Edgecombe said.

“I love coming here. It's a show that runs like clockwork every year and then you've got the facilities and hospitality, too . . . it all outweighs the trip up on that road.”

Placing second to Edgecombe on Sunday was Melody Matheson (Hastings) on Cortaflex Graffiti MH, who stopped the clock at a super-slick 52.43 seconds. It is the second year running the combination have been runners-up in the big class of the show.

Ten started the grand prix, with seven combinations on eight faults or less coming back for the second round. They all carried their penalties through.

Matheson and Leeshelle Small (Auckland), on AMS Glenbrooke Archie Bunker, were the only ones to leave all the rails up in the second round, but both carried eight faults from the opener.

Jeremy Whale (Cambridge), on Remarkable, filled third spot, finishing on eight faults in 55.45 seconds, with Small fourth in 58.65s, Emelia Forsyth (Clevedon) on her former eventer Henton Faberge in fifth place in 59.21s and Julie Davey (Hastings) on her imported mare Joligne de Carmel in sixth place.