The third and final class on Arena 1 on the first day of the Pet Circle 2025 Australian Jumping Championships was the first round of the premier competition of the show, The Australian Senior Championship. A total of 35 of the best horses and riders in the country made it onto the start list to compete for the biggest title on the Jumping calendar.

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With the rails set at 1.50m and the class conducted under speed class rules, all riders would have been looking to make a strong start to the series, to ensure that they were as high up the rankings as possible in an effort to firstly make the top 20 and qualify for the final and secondly to start in as high a position as possible.

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First out on the arena was the three-time senior champion Tom McDermott aboard the striking looking gelding Cooley Gangster. Not only did they leave all the rails intact, but they broke the beam in a super swift 66.81 seconds. It was an extremely impressive round and as it turned out, the next hour and a half revealed that it was a performance that none of the 34 combinations following were able to match.

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Second place in the class went to Jamie Winning-Kermond and Tulara Wat Colblensky. They, like Tom earlier, left all the rails intact to record a time of 71.40 seconds. In an extraordinary effort third place also went to Tom McDermott, this time aboard the Oaks Sporthorses produced gelding, Oaks Ventriloquist. Despite the addition of four seconds to their raw time, their adjusted time of 71.68 seconds was good enough to beat home the fourth to eighth placed combinations all of whom recorded clear rounds.

It was a very strong performance by Tom and we look forward to seeing how the rest of this Senior Championship competition plays out with a second round scheduled for tomorrow and a big final on Saturday.

The full list of placegetters in this class are listed below.

CLASS 3: AUSTRALIAN SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP (ROUND 1) – 1.50m

For full results of the class, click HERE.

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