The second major championship to be decided today at the Pryde’s EasiFeed Australian Jumping Championships was the IRT Australian Young Rider Championship and what an enthralling, edge-of-your-seat class it turned out to be. But more of that later.

The Championship was held over two qualifying rounds and today’s final. Let’s take a look back and see how the IRT Australian Young Rider Championship unfolded over the week.

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Round 1 was held on Thursday morning and was run as a speed class.

With a margin of almost two seconds, the winner of Round 1 was Madeline Sinderberry and Ciel in 67.72 seconds. Second place was filled by Jamie Priestley and Oaks Diamantina, with Amelia Douglass and Sirius Du Granit in third place. The result was a clean sweep to NSW with combinations from that state filling all 10 placings. All the placegetters from Round 1 are listed below.

Madeline Sinderberry and Ciel

CLASS 8: IRT – Australian Young Rider Championship Round 1 – 1.30m
The first ten placegetters in this class were:

Round 2 was conducted on Friday afternoon and was dominated by Jessie Rice-Ward. Heading the list of nine double clear combinations, a time almost 2.5 seconds faster than any other combination was enough to give Rice Ward and CP Southern Cross the win. Second place was again Jessie Rice-Ward, this time in combination with Denison Park Style. Lucy Evans and Viva Joy improved from eighth place in Round 1 to fill third place in Round 2. First Round winners Madeline Sinderberry and Ciel dropped down to fifth place in Round 2. Official placings for the Second Round are listed below.

Jessie Rice-Ward and CP Southern Cross

CLASS 19: IRT – Australian Young Rider Championship Round 2 – 1.30m
The first ten placegetters in this class were:

As this was one of the major championships to be decided at this year’s Titles, the Championship scoring system was used. For a summary of how this system works please click HERE, where it is explained as part of our report on the Horseland Australian Junior Championship.

Going into today’s final, the winners of each Preliminary round, Madeline Sinderberry and Ciel and Jessie Rice-Ward and CP Southern Cross were tied in the lead on zero penalties. Just three penalties behind was Lucy Evans and Viva Joy, with a further eight combinations within two rails of the lead. This was going to be a close competition and as it turned out, it was. Below is the list of penalties carried forward into the final for the top 25 Young Riders.

In the first round of today’s final, of the top five combinations only Madeline Sinderberry and Ciel and Amelia Douglass and Sirius Du Granit were able to record clear rounds to maintain their position. Jamie Priestley unfortunately took two rails to drop back to a total of 12 penalties, Lucy Evans and Viva Joy took a rail to drop back to seven and Jess Rice-Ward and CP Southern Cross took a single rail to relinquish their share of the lead to lie in equal second.

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In the second round, both combinations of Douglass and Sirius Du Granit and Rice-Ward and CP Southern Cross recorded clears to remained tied in second. So it came down to the last pair on course. They had previously completed four clear rounds in the course of the Championship and all Madeline Sinderberry and Ciel needed to do was do it one more time and the Title would be theirs. However, it was not to be. A single rail gave this pair their first penalties of the week, meaning that they had dropped back to an equal share of the lead on four penalties.

Amelia Douglass and Sirius Du Granit

After a brief wait, we went into a third round jump-off. This time, however, if they still could not be split on penalties then time would count, Now, the pressure was really on!

First combination out was Amelia Douglass and Sirius Du Granit. They took some tight lines in an effort to cut their time down and in the end, went clear in 50.37 seconds. It looked like we had a winner. Next out was Jess Rice-Ward and CP Southern Cross, they were not to be denied and not only went clear, but went faster than Douglass. A time of 47.67 definitely looked like a winning time, so surely the title was in her hands.

Amelia Douglass and Sirius Du Granit

Jessie Rice-Ward and CP Southern Cross

Once again, Sinderberry and Ciel had the pressure on them like never before. In their second ride today, all they needed was a clear round and they were not up to it. This time, they needed not only to be clear, but to be fast. Could the 2018 Australian Junior Champion make the step up? Of course she could!

Sinderberry and Ciel scorched around the course, not only going clear, but cutting an unbelievable 2.6 seconds off Rice-Ward’s time. The victory was hers, however, it was as close a championship as one could imagine and fantastic entertainment for the rapidly growing and appreciative crowd.

Madeline Sinderberry and Ciel

After the win we caught up with Sinderberry for a few words. We asked her what her thoughts were when she knew she had to go into a three way jump off. “Sickening” she said with a wry smile, “I knew what great competitors I was up against“. “Luckily I went out last, although I actually didn’t actually see them ride”. Knowing however that they had both gone clear and  fast, she said, “every time I thought about slowing down and balancing a little bit, I said no, I have just have to go faster”.

Madeline Sinderberry and Ciel

Here is a list of the final results in the championship

CLASS 44: IRT – Australian Young Rider Championship FINAL – 1.35m
The first twelve placegetters in this class were:

Australian Jumping congratulates Madeline Sinderberry and Ciel for their fantastic performance as well as the rest of the competitors, on what was a wonderful championship.