Duarte Seabra claimed the Duke of Atholl Trophy
There was plenty of drama at the Blair Castle International Horse Trials over the weekend, culminating in a special delivery by the RAF Falcons parachute display team, who landed in the main arena with an Olympic flag, to celebrate the moment when London became the official Olympic Games host city.
The Olympic Handover Flag at Blair Castle was one of over 500 flags delivered to locations throughout Great Britain, and Eventing bronze-medal Olympian William Fox Pitt was joined by local sports stars to help raise the flag for Blair Castle following the prize giving of the weekend’s premier class, the three-star eventing class.
It was won in dramatic fashion by Portuguese rider Duarte Seabra riding Brave Heart, competing in his first three-star event and making his first visit to Blair.
Duarte was in 16th place after dressage as he went into Saturday’s cross-country phase, in which only 18 of the 31 three-star entries completed. With a dressage score of 59.8, he thought he had no chance of winning the Duke of Atholl Trophy, but only 11.2 time faults cross-country and one fence down in the showjumping left him on a final score of 75, enough for first place. A clear across country elevated him to fifth place before the final show-jumping phase.
The dramas which had befallen the three-star riders in cross country continued in the show-jumping arena, in conditions made testing by heavy showers.
The Portuguese rider had one fence down but those higher placed incurred even more faults. Unluckiest was Lucy Holiday, second-placed after cross-country, who tumbled off when the grey mare High Times stumbled on landing, then the overnight leader Paddy Muir on his own Paddy Muir racked up a cricket score of 32 penalties.
Leaders’ scores for both the one- and two-star classes were very close, with clear rounds securing first places for Sarah Cohen on Irish Jester ahead of William Fox-Pitt on Cool Mountain in the two-star class, and Paul Sims and Regal Rascal II in the one-star.
The horse trials and country fair attracted large crowds on Saturday and Sunday, although emergency roadworks on the A9 between Pitlochry and Blair Atholl led to lengthy delays for many heading to and from the venue.