November 7, 2009

Katie McVean will be hoping for a little home-ground advantage in the second round of the World Cup (NZ series) on Sunday at the Showjumping Waikato World Cup Show at Kihikihi's Waipa Equestrian Park.

But there are plenty determined to stop her repeating her winning opening round performance.

McVean will start two in the World Cup class - her Olympic mount Dunstan Forrest II and Dunstan Delphi, on whom she won the opening round in Hawke's Bay last month.

Also lining up with every intention of spoiling McVean's party, will be former winner and the in-form Simon Wilson (Waipukurau) with his horses Right Royal and Swinger, last year's series winner Anna Trent (Hawke's Bay) with Cortaflex Levitation NZPH and another former winner Maurice Beatson (Dannevirke) with Zibibbo and My Gollywog.

McVean (Mystery Creek), Beatson and Trent are all on the Equestrian Sports New Zealand showjumping high performance squad aiming towards next year's World Equestrian Games in Kentucky.

Adding to the quality class are Claire Wilson (Waipukurau) on Answer Back, Catherine Cameron (Cambridge) with her two Kahurangi Tardak and Kahurangi Valentino, Julie Davey (Hastings) on Air Hill the Rajah, Robert Steele (Hawera) on Gospel, Ike Unsworth (Tauranga) on Seremonie VDL, and Bernard Denton (Gisborne) on Suzuki.

Gerrit Beker (Tauranga) will no doubt lay a challenging course suited to the international standard of the series.

The New Zealand series will be run over nine rounds, with the final two in Gisborne in late January 2010. A new indoor round at Manfield Park in Feilding in the evening of December 12 will add a new spectacle to the series.

A large field will be expected there as any series winner who plans to represent the country at the world final must have competed in the indoor round.

The world final will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from April 14-18. Sunday's class at the Waikato champs is scheduled to go at 1.30pm.

The world cup class will round out three days of top flight sport at the park. Show committee member Vicki McVean says it is one of the main shows on the New Zealand showjumping calendar.

"This will be one of the best surfaces we'll jump on all season - the hallowed polo field. It's fantastic underfoot and we're lucky to use it."

The show, which started yesterday, includes classes of all the national series, has attracted more than 500 entries from all over the North Island.

Twenty-one combinations will line up in the hotly-contested pony grand prix but again the odds favour local Jake Lambert (Matamata) or former Cambridge lad Luke Dee (Gisborne) to take the honours.

And it's not just all about competing, the proceeds from one class - likely to be hundreds of dollars - will be donated to the CatWalk Trust.