BOLESWORTH CLASSIC SHOW FINISHES WITH EXCITING CLIMAX
Tuesday 20 July 2010
The Bolesworth Castle Showjumping Classic & Country Fair (15th-18th July) was a four day equestrian spectacular for both the watching crowds and those competing in the closely contested classes.
Set in the stunning grounds of Bolesworth Castle, the show now in its third year attracted record numbers with visitors up by over 20% on last years event. It also featured more than its fair share of celebrity riders battling it out for the £65,000 prize fund.
Victory went to Nick Skelton in the third Aquashield Bolesworth Castle Grand Prix who partnered with Unique XVIII (owned by Beverley Widdowson) was last to go in the gripping jump off and captured the £6,000 first prize ahead of Ellen Whitaker and Equimax Ocolado.
Having already claimed the £1,000 first prize in the Townend Online Cushionbed 1.40m Class, Ireland’s Anthony Condon bagged himself a further £2,000 for winning the new featured class: The Liverpool Volkswagen Eventing Grand Prix. Showjumper Anthony borrowed Catch Ride Orchestrate from Laura Johnson and clinched a narrow victory, having never evented himself. Eventers Gary Parsonage on Peter Street and Mark Kyle with Step In Time finished 2nd and 4th (the only other competitors to finish with no added penalties) Last to go was Oliver Townend riding his own and Andrew Cawthray’s ODT Sonas Rovatio who smashed the time but hit the penultimate fence leaving them in 3rd place overall.
James Fisher won the Small Grand Prix with Lowriver Queen Z, the daughter of his top international horse Bowriver Queen and was very complimentary about his first visit to Bolesworth saying “The organisers and everyone involved with the show are just so nice and it’s fantastic that the show is becoming such a big success –it’s definitely one of the best on the circuit!”
Other equestrian highlights included more success for the Skelton yard with stable jockey Lance Whitehouse winning the Watson Plant Hire Sponsored Restricted 1.20m Championship and Nick himself winning the Costcutter 1.20m Open Championship. Local riders Peter Murphy and Robert Maguire shared a joint win in Sunday’s Six Bar contest.
Other attractions included Anthony Condon who again drew a big crowd to watch his cookery demo with celebrity chef Brian Mellor in the ever popular fine food marquee.
Nina Barbour, show director was delighted with this year’s show saying:
“We were thrilled that all four days showcased such exciting UK talent competing at the show, the Aquashield Grand Prix providing a spectacle that really was showjumping at its absolute best. We hope that whilst building on the family orientated aspects of the show, we continue to help our Federation in their quest to make British showjumping capture the hearts of the UK public once again and enable the Bolesworth Classic to achieve our goal of becoming a top international fixture.”
Full results on- line: www.bolesworthclassic.co.uk
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