Veteran equestrian rider Bryce Newman has gone out to an early lead in the ESNZ Eventing Super League after winning the top class at the Fiber Fresh National Equestrian Centre in Taupo over the weekend.
The Bulls rider competed on the back of Bates Trademark, owned by his mother-in-law FayMcSweeney.
Spokeswoman Virginia Caro said Newman was second after the dressage phase, scoring 54.8 penalties, then had a clear round in the showjumping on Saturday but with one time penalty.
Newman then appeared unhurried as he went clear in the cross country ride on Sunday with 10 time penalties leaving him a final score of 65.8.
Auckland's Dannie Lodder rode Petra Eatson's Moochi to finish in second place, moving up from fifth after the dressage to sit third overnight despite having a showjumping rail down and two time penalties.
The pair looked confident during the cross-country, completing the course with 11.2 time penalties on a final score of 74.9.
Fellow Auckland rider and 2013 Eventer of the Year, Simon Gordon was on Fletch.com when they produced the only fault-free showjumping round, which added no penalties to their third placed dressage score of 55.4 to hold the overnight lead.
However, when cruising around the CIC3* (short format) cross-country course they incurred 20.4 time penalties which left them back in third overall on a final score of 75.8.
Six of the seven starters completed the event, as Auckland's Angela Lloyd was leading after the dressage on the horse Song, but they dropped out of contention after running off a huge corner fence early on the cross-country course.
