Laurie said this was going to be Breeze’s last start, regardless of what she did.
Breeze will head to the brood mare paddock.
“She breeds good babies,” Laurie said.
The combination had an unlucky rail in the first round, leaving Laurie to nurse Breeze around the second, while still going fast enough to push the pack.
The opening round of the World Cup class saw clears from Lucy Fell (Longburn) on her 19-year-old former racehorse Tinapai, and Rose Alfeld (Leeston) on My Super Nova.
Five combinations sat on four faults — Laurie and Breeze, Brooke Edgecombe (Waipukurau) on LT Holst Andrea, Clarke Johnstone (Matangi) on Quainton Labyrinth, Samantha Morrison (Tauranga) on Biarritz and Lily Tootill (Karaka) on Ulysses NZPH.
Eleven combinations — those with eight faults and less — came back for the second round, where clears came from Laurie and Edgecombe.
Tootill, Johnstone and Alfeld each added four faults to their tallies, with the final placings decided on time.
Laurie took the win, with Alfeld, unlucky to drop the last fence, in second, Edgecombe third, Morrison fourth, Tootill fifth and Johnstone, on début at World Cup showjumping level, in sixth.
It was a great all-round show for the McVean-Laurie truck. Laurie’s niece Lucy Browne was ecstatic to win her first showjumping class, the pony 85cm aboard Awhero Awatea Idaho.
In the Country TV Pony Grand Prix, Emma Watson (Morrinsville) and Maddox Fun House jumped the only double clear to take the win.
Ruby Mason (Napier), who finished third in the Pony Grand Prix with Mr Acho, took the honours in the FEI World Jumping Challenge Category A on Peggy Blue.
Ally Carson (Putaruru) and Sir Gandolf won the FEI World Jumping Challenge Category B. Carson was also sixth in the Pony Grand Prix aboard Tony the Pony.
• Of the Gisborne riders competing at the show, Sinead Dolman, on Kiwi Lansing, won the Dunstan Horsefeeds and Equifibre Junior Rider Series event, and Lisa Walker, on Miss Serendipity, finished second in the Caledonian Holdings Amateur Rider Series.
Wairoa’s Sarah McKinnon, on Dakota II, was first-equal in the East Coast Performance Horses Five-year-old Series event, and on Matilda II was sixth in the junior rider series event won by Dolman.
