Equestrian: Riders back from brink

By EUGENE BINGHAM

A silver brooch and a swag of secret lucky charms helped equestrian Vaughn Jefferis drag New Zealand back into contention for an eventing team gold yesterday.

The Waikato rider pinned a stockpin engraved with the name of his horse, Bounce, to his lapel before entering the sweltering Olympic equestrian arena knowing that New Zealand needed a top performance from him.

The charms worked. Jefferis and Bounce pulled off one of their best dressage scores to put New Zealand in touch with the leaders going into today's crucial cross-country phase.

"Keep your fingers crossed and you watch us boys go - we can go like hell," Jefferis said after his penalty-points score of 40.6.

His effort was the best of the New Zealand scores and the perfect antidote to Saturday's disappointing start to the three-day team's hunt for gold when Mark Todd posted 58.6.

New Zealand's other star rider, Blyth Tait, was equally gutted by his score - 52 - bettered even by Kiwi rookie Paul O'Brien, who scored a career-best 51.

While Todd put his meagre score down to the unsettling effect of fans' cheers when he entered the stadium, Australia's Andrew Hoy seemed to thrive on the crowd support. Hoy set a remarkable 30.6 that could catch.

His effort catapulted Australia to the top of the leader board, where they remained last night with a team score of 112.6.

Britain (115.2) was second followed by the United States (125.4) and France (140.2). New Zealand are on 143.6.

As the last of the Kiwi riders, Jefferis could feel the pressure. To help things go his way, he wore all his lucky charms. Asked what they were, he chuckled: "I can't tell you, otherwise they wouldn't be lucky."

Jefferis and Tait said the team knew they would all have to crack the cross-country course, which is expected to suit the Australian and New Zealand thoroughbreds.

"The event is not going to be won on the dressage," said Tait. "We knew with our team of horses the cross-country would be crucial.

"We're in touch, we're happy; we would like to be 10 marks better than we are but we don't feel we're out of it."

The 16,500-strong crowd at Horsley Park was asked to be quiet when New Zealand and Australian riders entered the arena yesterday after the Kiwi team management complained about the cheering that greeted Todd and his mount, Diamond Hall Red, on Saturday.



He blamed the crowd noise for a below-par performance that saw him 29th of the 47 riders.

Australian star Hoy put his fingers to his lips to hush the crowd when he rode in, then threw his arms up to encourage them when he finished.

"I've never waved to a crowd at the dressage before but I thought, 'blow the etiquette'," he said.