Eventing: Oceania champs berths at stake

HOT FAVOURITE: Jackson Bovill and Visionnaire are tipped to perform well in Hunua this weekend. PHOTO/TAKE THE MOMENT PHOTOGRAPHY

The post-Olympic year traditionally throws up emerging talent, so the New Zealand Young Rider and Junior Rider Eventing Championships at Hunua this weekend will be watched keenly by national selectors.

They will be naming training squads in mid-April for the Oceania (formerly the Trans-Tasman) Championships, which take place at the Melbourne Three-day Event, Werribee Park, from June 8-12. Both senior and young rider teams will travel together for the first time, having contested their respective championships in alternate years previously.

It can only be of benefit for our future internationals to travel with their senior counterparts and experience the environment of the wider support group. Each team will consist of four riders, who will be required to contribute to the cost of transportation of the horses.

Alternating between New Zealand and Australia, the Young Rider Oceania Championship was won by New Zealand at Taupo in 2015. The only member of that team competing for the Young Rider title at Hunua is Abigail Long, from Levin, on Enzo, the former ride of Cantabrian international Annabel Wigley.

But favourite for the title and the prestigious Charisma Trophy has to be defending champion Jackson Bovill on Visionnaire, who won at Pukemarama, the Central Districts venue near Foxton, last year. Based with Olympian Clarke Johnstone at Matangi, he was runner-up in the Senior Championship at Arran Station last October.

The senior title is contested at 3* level, and the Young Rider at 2*, so Bovill is unlikely to be overawed by the challenge of the Troy Wheeler Contracting sponsored event. But he will have to be on his toes as there are others keen to prove themselves worthy of representing their country.

Fellow Talent ID squad member Renee Faulkner on Rubinstar HH has also stepped up to 3* without missing a beat, so will be hoping to make the young rider squad. There are 13 young riders contesting the title, including last year's junior rider champion, Greer Caddigan on Gymnastik Showdown.

The junior rider championship for the Hoffman Trophy, contested at 1* level, has attracted 11 starters. Both championships are being run in conjunction with other classes, so the supreme triumph would be to win the class as well as the title. Series points for the championships carry a bonus, so there is much at stake.

The venue, Springbush, is home to international course designer Tich Massey, who is sure to have fine-tuned the cross country to host these championships for the first time. The dressage and showjumping phases take place today, and the cross country tomorrow.