Equestrian: Tompkins trio set for top 10

Olympic rider Heelan Tompkins is on course to qualify three horses for next year's World Games.

All her mounts finished in the top 10 by jumping clear over the three-star cross-country course at the Puhinui horse trials yesterday.

The New Plymouth rider made the endurance phase look simple as she rode seemingly effortless rounds to finish second on the oldest horse competing, Dunstan Glengarrick, and third on her new Australian mount Prince of Princes.

She finished behind veteran rider Andrew Scott, who held his dressage lead on Mitavite Duncan.

Scott, now in his late 40s and part of New Zealand's gold-winning team at the 1990 World Games, is hoping to qualify Duncan as his second horse for next year's games at Aachen, Germany. He rode into trouble when his other hope, Mitavite Westella, was eliminated at the same obstacle of a large hedge and pallisade that stopped him last year.

As the riders covering the first three positions, he and Tompkins will hope their horses pass the veterinary inspection before today's showjumping determines the winner.

Olympian and favourite Matthew Grayling has only one chance left to qualify for Aachen after he was knocked out of the competition yesterday. His mount Gordon also showed a long memory - eliminated at the same pallisade the horse refused to jump with a different rider last time.

Scott was thrilled with Duncan covering the course over hard, jarring ground when the horse was still "green" after missing recent starts because of injury.

Yet it was Tompkins, a relatively young international rider at 27, who really showed her mettle by riding Dunstan Joseph Samuel into eighth place with the first clear three-star jumping round before her other two mounts cleared to better their positions after the dressage.

With each of her rides, Tompkins seemed to glide through the difficult bounce obstacles into the water, while other combinations scrambled and slid through this most testing part. Her Olympic mount Glengarrick, now 19, skipped around the course before finishing at a gallop. Already well past the age at which the unforgettable Charisma was retired by Mark Todd, the similarly diminutive thoroughbred proved he was fitter than many other younger mounts.

Tompkins still has her sights on taking him to Aachen. Having ridden him for 10 years since taking him over as a broken-down eventer, she said she always took special care with him.

"The ground was like concrete so I didn't push him on his old legs. He felt a bit tired but I waited until he got his second wind and then he was fine."

Tompkins also showed her skill by riding clear on Prince of Princes. He was the fastest horse over the course but Tompkins admitted he was difficult to pull up before jumps and "he just galloped all the time between".

- HERALD ON SUNDAY