The seventh leg of the 2024 Australian FEI World Cup season was held over the weekend as part of Jumping@Willinga, at the magnificent Willinga Park property on the NSW South Coast. Initially scheduled in a Saturday Evening timeslot, extremely gusty conditions meant that the class had to be held over till Sunday morning when the weather was much kinder, if not a little chilly. The horses and riders did not seem to mind the early start with an enthralling competition being witnessed by a small, but brave, crowd of spectators.

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A large start list of 29 combinations took on the course on the main arena, designed by Mark Atkins. The course was designated 88 seconds as the time allowed, which saw all but one finishing combination beat home. A total of four combinations failed to finish the course, however, there were also four clear rounds, the fastest of which was achieved by Clem Smith and Oaks Conjuror, who were home in 84.06 seconds.

Above: Clem Smith and Oaks Conjuror

The top 12 combinations were invited back to the second round, which included the four clear combinations and a further eight, all of whom finished the course with four penalties.

Brad Frankum and his giant gelding Oaks Calypso were the first out in round 2, but a trio of rails down saw them end the competition on 16 penalties. The second combination on course were the New Zealand pair of Julie Davey and her mare LT Holst Freda, winners of the Tamworth leg a couple of weeks ago. They put the pressure on all those to come by putting in a clear second round and ending up with a total of just four penalties.

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Jessie Rice-Ward and Tulara Diarangol were next out but a further three rails put an end to their chances of taking out the class. Finishing on 16, they would go on to finish in twelfth position. Rhys Stones, who has recently returned from a European campaign had a great ride on his young mare Riverton Kanntador. They were clear in the second round, but a time over two seconds faster than Julie Davey and LT Holst Fredaput them into the lead, but still with eight combinations to come.

Fifth combination out in the second round were the Queensland pair of Gemma Creighton and Dada Des Brimbelles Z who took a single second round rail to finish on a total of eight penalties. Based in the Central West of NSW, the next pair out were Jennifer Wood and gelding Ipod. They had a fantastic round leaving all the rails in place to finish on a total of four and for the time being a place on the podium, although it was going to be tough to stay there with the four combinations starting round two on four penalties to come.

Above: Jennifer Wood and Ipod.

Also having taken on the best in Europe in recent months, Tom McDermott and Cooley Gangster were the next pair to tackle the course. They not only went clear but set a cracking time of just 47.42 seconds to snatch the lead and put some real pressure on those to follow. The last of the first round four faulters we saw were the New Zealanders Luke Dee and his gelding Gangster WW. They took a pair of rails to add to their first round score, ending up on a total of 12 and dropping out of contention.

Above: Tom McDermott and Cooley Gangster.

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Despite the cold weather, now with just the four first round clears to come, the competition really began to heat up. First out of the four were Jamie Winning-Kermond and mare Tulara Wat Colblensky. In just their second outing at this level, they produced a very good round, however, a single rail down would see them finish as one of the six combinations who ended up on four penalties, although a fast time of 48.68 seconds would see them go on to finish in fourth place overall.

Above: Jamie Winning-Kermond and Tulara Wat Colblensky

Another New Zealand combination were next out. Logan Massie and Bravado Ego Z were magnificent, again going clear to take over the lead of the competition and with just two combinations to follow, they had assured themselves a place on the podium.

Above: New Zealanders Logan Massie and Bravado Ego Z.;

Having won two World Cup Qualifiers this season, Australia’s hopes of stopping the Kiwis from taking out consecutive Australian World Cup Qualifiers was next in the hands of Billy Raymont and Caprino. They put in a cool clear and measured round, to finish clear and with a time almost 1.5 seconds faster than the leader, they took over the position at the top of the leaderboard.

Above: Billy Raymont and Caprino

The last combination in the class were Clem Smith and Oaks Conjuror. To take the win, they needed to go clear and finish in a time less than the 53.90 seconds that Billy and Caprino had finished the course in. Clem and his Oaks bred gelding could not quite “conjure” up the win. While they beat the leaders home by over 1.5 seconds a single rail down saw them slot into seventh place in the competition.

So, Billy Raymont and Caprino took the win. It was their third win this season from just the six outings and with the large start list ensuring that the maximum of 20 points was on offer to the winners, Billy has raced to the top of the leaderboard. It was a fantastic morning of Jumping, with the two double clear combinations separated by just over a second. The next six combinations all finished with a total of four penalties and with just six seconds separating third place and eighth, the competition really could have so easily gone to any of these combinations.

Congratulations to all involved for organising such a wonderful competition and keeping things going with such wild weather.

The full listing of the top 12 placegetter in the World Cup Qualifier are listed below.

JUMPING @ WILLINGA WORLD CUP QUALIFIER CSI1*-W

PLACE	RIDER	HORSE
1st	Billy Raymont	Caprino
2nd	Logan Massie	Bravado Ego Z
3rd	Tom McDermott	Cooley Gangster
4th	Jamie Winning-Kermond	Tulara Wat Colblensky
5th	Rhys Stones	Riverton Kanntador
6th	Julie Davey	LT Holst Freda
7th	Clem Smith	Oaks Conjuror
8th	Jennifer Wood	Ipod
9th	Gemma Creighton	Dada Des Brimbelles Z
10th	Luke Dee	Gangster WW
11th	Brad Frankum	Oaks Calypso
12th	Jessie Rice-Ward	Tulara Diarangol

Results sourced from online-equipe.