The Second Round of the Winning Group, Australian Junior Championship opened proceedings this morning at the Pet Circle Australian Jumping Championships. While the weather might have been overcast and cool, the competition was hot as 64 of the best Junior combinations in the country took to the arena. The pressure was on as each competitor was looking to force their way into the top half of the field to ensure they qualified for Sunday’s big final.

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What ensued this morning will long remain in the memory of those fortunate enough to witness it, with the jump off providing a nail-biting rollercoaster ride for the spectators.

In a wonderful display of high-quality jumping, over a third of the field put together clear rounds creating the need for a jump off which saw 22 combinations return to the arena. A number of the competitors took rails in their efforts to get to the top of the leaderboard, but for those who left the rails intact, the tension was immense. At one stage, each new combination into the arena meant a change at the top of the leaderboard.

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With just one combination left in the jump off, the class was as close as ever. There had been eight double clears, but the top five had times ranging from the leader in 37.49 seconds down to fifth place with a time of 37.81. That’s right, the top five places had less than a third of a second between them and just as we thought the class could not get any better, it did!

Charlie Magner aboard his recently imported gelding Ogano were the last combination out, fresh from their victory in yesterday’s first round. They absolutely blitzed it! Home, clear, in a time of just 35.80 seconds to snatch the victory. It was an extremely impressive ride and with wins now in both of the preliminary rounds, Charlie and Ogano will go into Sunday’s final on zero penalties and carry a sizeable lead over the rest of the field.

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Second place went to Imogen Lindh and Licaviv who are no strangers to success, having placed fourth in the Junior Championship last year and, in fact, winning the Children’s championship the last time the Titles were held at Boneo Park in 2022.

Just 0.2 seconds further back in third place, with a time of 37.69 seconds, were last years’ Junior Championships third placed combination of Jack Barker and Tulara For Quinar.

All in all, it was an exhilarating class and with the closeness of the competition today, we can look forward to a wonderful final.

The full placings in this class were as follows:

CLASS 18: WINNING GROUP: AUSTRALIAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP (ROUND 2) – 1.30m

For full results of the class, click HERE.

The final of the Winning Group Junior Championship will be held on Sunday. All combinations that competed in the first two preliminary rounds have been ranked based on their combined performance across the two rounds and the top half (35) have been invited to compete in that final.

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The best performed combination across the two classes was Charlie Magnier and Ogano after their two wins. They will go into Sunday’s final on zero penalties. The rest of the combinations will start the final carrying a number of penalties commensurate with the distance between them and the leader. The penalties to be carried into the final for the top 10 combinations looks like this.

With seven combinations within two rails of the lead the final is, no doubt, going to be an exiting one. We wish all competitors the very best.

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