from Eventing (dated 14mar11)
Clarke Johnstone and Orient Express, team bronze medalists at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky last year, will be among the eighteen competitors vying for top honours in the Alltech CIC*** Eventing at the Horse of the Year Show in Hastings this weekend.
Johnstone also has his two less experienced but well performed horses, Incognito and KS Secrets, entered in this Bell Tea Super League class, but most interest will centre on Orient Express, who is having his first elite level start since returning from Kentucky.
The current leaders of the Bell Tea Super League will meet for the first time since the Puhinui Three-day Event before Christmas, with Brent Jury bringing SE Big up from the South Island to see if he can add to the National One-day Event title he won at Richfields in December.
Lizzie Brown, who holds top spot with Henton Attorney General just 2.5 points ahead of Jury, will be striving not only to retain her lead, but to extend it. She also has Push Play, who lies fourth in the series, entered in this internationally rated class, which will earn 45 series points for the winner.
Alice Montgomery and her seasoned campaigner Gordon will provide top level competition, as will Heelan Tompkins with Major Difference, with whom she won the National Three-day Event at Taupo last May.
Others expected to produce good performances are Bryce Newman on the talented Bates Trademark, relatively new at this level but showing great promise, and Simon Gordon, a member of last years successful Trans-Tasman Young Rider team, with Fletch.com and Simply Mitch, both stepping up to the next level with aplomb.
John Nicholsons cross-country course at the Hawkes Bay Equestrian Park, Flaxmere, has been extended further onto the Hawkes Bay Golf Club course, and will provide a major challenge for these top competitors as well as exciting viewing for spectators on the Saturday of the Show.
The Bell Tea Super League runs throughout the competition year, culminating at the National Three-day Event at Taupo in May, and is designed to recognize and reward the countrys elite eventers, who put in the hard yards and the long miles, and provide such exciting entertainment.