Above: Elissa Stephens and Vertigo. Photo credit Michelle Terlato Photography.

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For the second year in a row, the Magic Millions Horse Racing and Sales Festival on the Gold Coast has incorporated a day of Jumping and Polo into the festivities. Held at Doug Jennings Park, right on the water at The Spit, the location provided a spectacular venue for the first major Jumping event of 2023 – the Pacific Fair Magic Millions Polo & Showjumping. The competitions were held under clear skies in warm breezy conditions and was enjoyed by a huge crowd.

The jumping had just two classes. One for Junior rider combinations and the other a Senior team event. While the Senior team competition had almost $1.5 million prize money on offer, the Juniors were competing a very substantial $10,000.

Twenty of the top Junior combinations in the country made the trek to the Gold Coast to take part, competing over a Graeme Watts designed course, with a time allowed that eventually settled was settled at 90 seconds.

The first few combinations in the draw all took rails and it wasn’t until the sixth combination out, Charlie Magnier and Quinn Z, that we saw our first clear round. They were followed by a further four first round clears with the fastest of these by Elissa Stephens and Vertigo in 79.73 seconds.

Above: Elissa Stephens and Vertigo. Photo credit Michelle Terlato Photography.

These five combinations, as well as the fastest three four-faulters were invited to return to compete in a second round made up of eight combinations.

The first combination out in the second round were Jett Newman and Wanda from NSW, who took a rail, adding four faults to their first-round score to finish on a total of eight. This pair were followed by another NSW combination Alexandra Inglis and the very appropriately named Palm Beach, who took a further two rails to finish on 12 faults. The third combination on course was the fastest of the first round four-faulters, being Cody Tincknell, the winner of this event last year, and Screwdriver. They took a rail on the way around to also finish on a total of eight.

Next, we saw the first-round clear combinations get their chance. The first of these on course was Charlie Magnier and Quinn Z. They took a single rail to finish on a total of four, which was enough to hold the lead, but the question was for how long. As it turned out, not for long. Victorian combination, Jack Barker and Tulara Colchic put together a fantastic round, producing the first double clear of the class with a time of 56.44 seconds.

Now the pressure was really on the last three combinations to come. The Queensland combination of Emily Lang-McMahon and Glenara Mudslide were the first to try and emulate Barker’s effort, however, a rail and a time of 57.37 placed them in third with just two combinations to come.

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Ella Hayward and Edena DP did everything required of them, producing the second double clear performance of the day and doing so in a time of 55.12 to take the lead. It was all up to the last combination on course, Victorians, Elissa Stephens and Vertigo. They produced the round of the day, also going clear, but in a scintillating time of 51.39 to take the win by more than four seconds. It was a just reward for this combination who had recently finished sixth in the Australian Junior Championship late last year, followed by a second placing in the Victorian Country Junior championship at Sale in late November.

It was a very exciting class with the Juniors putting on a great display of jumping, clearly demonstrating that the future of the sport is in good hands.

Above: Elissa Stephens and Vertigo. Photo credit Michelle Terlato Photography.

At the presentation the three podium placings were awarded their prizes, after which the Godolphin sponsored horsemanship award was presented to Jett Newman by Edwina Tops-Alexander, who also made the days of the top three riders by congratulating them personally.

Now there was less than an hour to wait for the running of the richest purse in the history of Jumping in this country.

The final eight placings in the Magic Millions Junior competition for 2023 were as follows: