Wind, rain, mud and tears of joy all part of the excitement at Melbourne 3DE
- Fran Cleland
- 6 hours ago
- 5 min read
THE Melbourne International Three-Day Event at Werribee has again delivered a long weekend of highlights in spades.
With a blast of winter weather adding to the challenges of the event, riders who finished in the placings across all classes deserved every inch of the accolades, with many combinations not making it through the cross country course due to the wet and muddy conditions.
Sophia Hill, who won the CCI four-star riding the warmblood Tulara Baltango, is known for her great talent in this phase and used it to make up ground on her rivals.
With the pair in seventh place after dressage and less than 10 points separating the top eight horses, she and Beltango finished within time and 30 seconds faster than the rest of the field, who all who had time faults.
Adding just four faults in the showjumping round meant the pair finished exactly two points ahead of Shane Rose on Holy Moses and Hannah Klep’s Tulara Chicove.
This is Tulara Baltango’s first season competing at this level after quickly rising through the ranks, showing judges were on the money when awarding the gelding the six/seven-year old young event horse class at Dressage and Jumping with the Stars in 2023.
West Australians dominated the three-star class, with six riders in the top 10 including the winner Charlee Morton-Sharp.
The 17-year-old travelled to the eastern states with her three-star mount SV Supermaxi, two other horses and her mum, Linda, who said Charlee had done most of the work on the former racehorses herself.
“She is very dedicated and determined kid,” she said.
“I’m more proud than you can imagine.”
It’s been an eventful year for the team – Linda was kicked in the head by a horse in April and was hospitalised and before that, Supermaxi suffered a bout of pneumonia and the family was told he may never event at three-star level again.
“It was a very special win for us all,” Linda said.
“We are so very blessed.”
Charlee and SV Supermaxi rose from third after the dressage to take the class with fellow WA rider Ruby Rae and WHF Frequency second and Oliver Barrett (NSW) and Sandhills Gem third.
The other West Australians to do well in the tough conditions were Riley Lyall and GI War Machine in fifth place, Ellie Gough and GSH Azugo seventh, Isobel Stevens-Menzie riding Azarax ninth and Riley Lyall and GI Caramba tenth in a strong field of 24.
Charlee was also presented with the Caitlyn Fischer Memorial Award for the highest performing young rider in the three-star class and Supermaxi was the best performed off-the-track Thoroughbred.
Shane Rose collected another second place for the weekend on Limitless Lodge Zsa Zsa in the CCI two-star class, this time beaten by his wife, Niki, riding Cooley All Over who finished with an impressive score of just 27.3 penalty points.
He did get to take home a trophy though, with New South Wales winning the teams event thanks to the performances of the Roses, Alex Walters and Bree Baker.
Victoria placed second (Lamoza Velisha, Yona Lloyd, Georgia Spangaro and Emily Anker) and South Australia third (Jaimie Stichel, Megan Jones, Chloe Jong and Charlie Germein).
The finish could not have been closer in the CCI Junior/Young Rider two-star class.
The win went to Lamoza Velisha riding Call Me Cooley on 34.9 penalty points ahead of Dominik Michalczyk and Fort Wirth on 35. Oliver Barrett and Tempranado were third on 35.5.
Going into the final phase the leaderboard was tightly packed, with Lamoza one of three placed in equal second.
Charlotte White’s Remi Lord of the Realm held the lead but two fences down in the showjumping dropped the pair to fifth.
Two of the three riders all placed equal second after cross country had their chance to win but both had fences down, and Lamoza’s clear gave her the win.
“It was a bit of a breathtaking one going into it,” she said.
“There were three of us all on equal second, so to end the season on a high is pretty good.”
Lamoza has only had Call Me Cooley for just over a year having bought the gelding from the UK where the Irish Sport Horse had been campaigned by Molly Faulkner.
“It’s still a new partnership, but he was a legend out there,” Lamoza said.
“He did everything I asked.
“He’s used to the muddy going back in the UK, so he was quite happy with the footing, I’m lucky to have him.”
French rider Marlene Battedou and the 17.2hh Le Grand d’ Amour led from start to finish in the one-star class for former Thoroughbred racehorses.
Marlene, who has been based in Australia since 2011, was thrilled with “Tiny’s” cross-country performance.
“A bit muddy and wet conditions, but what a horse,” she said.
“I’m so proud of him – bold and confident, he is just the best.”
Second place went to Charlie Richardson and VH Wingman and another overseas rider, Shashank Kataria from India, was third on Tanoshi.
The Melbourne International Three-Day Event also holds a young event horse challenge for four, five and six year-old horses.
Abigail Hobbs and Riverton Commander won the four-year-old class, Mackenzie Walch and Misty Isle Sergei the five-year-old and Tahlia Pursell’s Yalambi’s Oscar De La Renta, who recently also won the 95cm young horse class at Woady Yaloak Horse Trials, the six-year-old.
Winner of the Rising Star Challenge was Annabel Archibald and Zaaki, followed by Jennifer Duffy and Amourette and Grace Imrie and Lady Fiorente.
GALLERY
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All images LISA GREEN/MANE MEMORIES
Events don’t run without an army of volunteers and the winner of the event’s most outstanding volunteer award was Sean Kellett.
His father, leading course designer Ewen Kellett, praised his son’s efforts.
“I’m completely biased, but he was brilliant all weekend,” he said.
“Whenever I couldn’t find him it was often because he was off helping with whatever task needed doing, rain or shine.
“He has no reason to be involved apart from he loves helping out and spending time with me.”
Ewan thanked all the volunteers who were involved.
“It’s a massive effort to make the event work and it doesn’t work without everyone playing their part, no matter the task,” he said.
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