Mark Todd over first hurdle on Olympic path

New Zealand eventing comeback hopeful Mark Todd is over the first hurdle in his path to competing in the Olympic games later this year.

He took the first step towards Olympic qualification at Arran Station, Takapau, in Central Hawkes Bay, over the weekend, qualifying two horses for next weekend's Puhinui horse trials.

In order to ride his new mount, NZB Gandalf, in the top class (three-star) at the Puhinui International Event in Auckland on 13-16 March, Todd needed two qualifying rounds at advanced level.

The double Olympic gold medalist retired after winning bronze at Sydney in 2000, but decided to make a come-back last month having found a suitable horse. However he needed to re-qualify in order to again participate at international level.

The only advanced class in the country prior to the Puhinui event was staged by the Hawkes Bay Pony Clubs at their area trials at Arran Station, over Central and Southern Hawkes Bay Eventing's course, at the request of owners wishing to qualify their horses for Puhinui.

The clubs were rewarded for agreeing to do so, before Todd's come-back hit the headlines, by having him come out of retirement at their event.

As well as NZB Gandalf, Todd had two “catch” rides in order to try and gain the two qualifying scores required. These were Justice Lowell Goddard's Judge's Decision, prepared by Mary Darby and usually ridden by veterinary student Sam Taylor, and Natalie Page's Tom Collins.

Todd attained a qualifying dressage score on all three horses on Saturday, and again with all three in the showjumping phase on Sunday morning. But cross-country is the big challenge in the sport of eventing, and the man named Rider of the Century by the International Equestrian Federation proved to be human after all.

He rode Judge's Decision first, the least experienced of the horses, and looked a little rusty in places, with a hesitation bordering on penalty on the steep downhill drop, a refusal at the rails in front of the sunken road, and a run-off at the corner near the end of the course.

So he needed two good rounds from the two remaining horses, both experienced advanced eventers, and he did just that, pulling up from sixth after the dressage on Tom Collins to win the class, with the fastest cross-country round of the day, incurring just 0.4 of a time penalty.

His last round on NZB Gandalf was poetry in motion, incurring 8.8 time penalties, the second fastest of the day, to finish third overall, having had a rail down in the showjumping to add to his dressage score of 39.6, which had him in second place overnight.

The dressage leader, John Twomey, from Cambridge, riding Flaunt It, incurred 21.6 cross-country time penalties to fill second place, but will be well pleased to have achieved a qualifying score, having had a fall on the last two occasions.

Todd said afterwards, “It's a relief to have that behind me. I didn't give the first horse the best ride, but I had the feel again by the time I got to Gandalf. It was a nice course for my first one after a long break.”

He added, “I don't think I've ever ridden three horses for the first time at this level in such a short space of time,” having jumped from one to the other with minimal time to warm up.

Having spent this week in Cambridge with his parents, Todd will compete at the Bay of Plenty event in Rotorua this weekend, before appearing in the invitational event for the NZ Olympic squad horses at the Kelt Capital Horse of the Year Show in Hastings.

The following weekend is the next challenge in his bid for Olympic qualification, when he rides NZB Gandalf at the Puhinui International Event in Auckland.

If everything goes his way in the coming weeks Todd will head to the UK to continue his campaign.