Posted: 4th March 2014 | Back to news feed
A second CIC** victory in the space of two weeks continued Liz Halliday-Sharp’s perfect start to the new international eventing season at Barroca d’Alva in Portugal on Sunday.
Fresh from their triumph together at Herdade Vale Sabroso the week before, the British-based Californian and Blackie (Fernhill by Night) once again proved the class of a near 40-strong field by leading throughout and finishing on their impressive Dressage score of 42.7.
A fast and error-free Cross Country run saw the pair head into the deciding Show Jumping round with a rail in hand. And another faultless display from Blackie – his second in less than a week – ensured their rivals would be afforded no second chances.
Victory also capped a triumphant anniversary for the duo who won Barroca’s CIC* event 12 months ago.
Meanwhile Cooley (HHS Cooley) was also in excellent form en route to third overall, not far behind his USA High Performance Training Listed stablemate.
Although disappointed with their Dressage score, Halliday-Sharp still entered the Cross Country run aware that a strong performance could see Cooley challenging for a place on the podium. 0.4 time penalties from his round certainly kept them in the hunt, but only a perfect Show Jumping performance would offer any real hope of moving higher than fifth. Fortunately Cooley delivered, and when those ahead faltered it was he and Halliday-Sharp who picked up the pieces thanks to a faultless clear round.
“I really couldn’t have hoped for a better start to the season,” said Halliday-Sharp. “Once again Blackie demonstrated what a world class horse he is by performing faultlessly over the Cross Country and Show Jumping courses and finishing on his Dressage score. There are actually some bits and pieces in the Dressage test that could have been better, so with that in mind it was really encouraging to still be in the lead by over four marks after that phase. All in all I can’t really fault his performance over the two weeks in Portugal. He really has come out fighting this year and I have high expectations for him in the future.
“I was also really happy with Cooley's performance and thrilled to finish in the top three. I actually think his Dressage score was a bit harsh, so we lost some marks there, but fortunately he’s such a powerhouse over the jumps that I was always confident we’d have a chance at the end as long as we didn't make any mistakes.
“There’s an incredible amount of effort that goes on behind the scenes and in that respect I really need to thank all of my hard working team at Chailey Stud for their continued help, as well as my sponsors for their support. Hopefully we can maintain our excellent start to 2014!”
Rather than remain in Portugal for one final week of international eventing, Halliday-Sharp, Blackie and Cooley are all returning to Chailey Stud ahead of USA Team Training in the early part of next week.
That will be followed on March 19-23 with a trip to Fontainebleau near Paris for the opening FEI Nations Cup CICO*** event of the season, where Liz will be making her second Nations Cup appearance for the USA and targeting individual honours aboard both horses.
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