Story by Chris Hector and photos by Roz Neave
Show director, Mark Hopkinson is obviously one super smart businessman, but to see him in his very classy restaurant, Romulus and Remus is to see what a super people-person he is, as he works the floor, making his guests feel welcome and special. Mark could obviously hire a professionally personable front-of-house to do this, but you get the feeling really he enjoys it… Certainly the new director needed all his diplomatic skills and charm to get through his baptism of fire (well not so much fire as deluge) as the new director of the Australian Showjumping Championships.
At the beginning of the week as the crew set up for the champs, there was a bit of rain. Great, they thought, the ground needs it, but hey, not that much – and then came a whole lot more. Talking to my pal, Vicki Roycroft on the Thursday, she did not believe it possible that there would be any jumping on the main – grass – arena. It was a tiny miracle that the show did go on, and the surface held up remarkably well…
It was doubly a pity because this year, the championships, which have been a raging success ever since they moved to the big grass arena at Werribee, moved up a gear in terms of presentation. Tim Dreverman has long been a star on the microphone at jumping shows (he actually knows the sport) but this year he was joined by Stephanie Davies, who added another dimension to the mix. Stephanie has a great voice, and she too, actually has a feel for what she is talking about.
In the run up to the show, Stephanie did a series of interviews with the riders headed to Werribee, they were light-hearted, fun, and deserved a nice sunny series of days to shine. Next year.
Stephanie Davies – easy listening…
Other girls grow up wanting to be ballet dancers or brain surgeons – but a showjumping commentator?
“No, I actually just grew up wanting to be a showjumping rider. A few years ago I was helping out at our local showjumping club, and we ran short of a commentator. I was normally such a confident girl, but I got extremely nervous about being on the microphone. At the end of the day someone came and congratulated me, and I said, oh you are kidding – I thought you’d be sick of my voice. It just grew from there, unexpectedly.”
How many weekends a year at you commenting at a jumping show?
“Not as many as I would like, I would love to be able to do it full-time, but at the moment I am still juggling full-time work and commentating. I try to do one or two shows a month.”
Had you worked with Tim before?
“I had worked with him at his NSW Country Championships, two years ago, and that was really fun, but Tim is a great friend and we get along really well. It was really nice to be able to work with him in a professional capacity. We get on well, and I have learnt so much from Tim, I understand how he likes things to run, and we can bounce off each other that way.”
How did you come up with the little pre-recorded interviews?
“We’ve been working closely with another couple of media companies that were involved with the Championships, it was a real team effort: Grant Day James – the Media powerhouse that was partner to the ASJC courtesy of Kathy Grant and the team, all pro bono for the show from website, to social media and PR. Kathy then involved Steve and Lou from Showmakers Production Company, who were behind some fantastic camera strategy and worked on clips from Boneo Park in the lead up, and then there was Karen and Jamie Ellis and Tom Lupton from the organizing committee for coordinating music and media behind the scenes!”
What’s your ambition?
“I’ve ridden eventing, then moved over to showjumping. I have a love of all horses and equestrian horse sports. My vision is to get equestrian sports here in Australia on to main stream media, but also to bring international equestrian sport into Australian media. I’d love to be a part of that in any way I can.”
Was there ever any point when you thought, this is not going to happen – there’s no way we can jump on that grass…
“There was hesitation when I jumped on the plane on Wednesday night, but as soon as I had a meeting on Thursday morning with Mark Hopkinson, I knew it would all be okay, they were working so hard to make it happen. The super soaker that was rolling the ground and collecting any surface water was just amazing – I’ve never seen that at an Australian showjumping show. As soon as I walked on the ground on the Friday morning, it was a fantastic surface and the ground just got better and better. The way the committee was just so ahead of the game in adjusting the program and being very conscious of running the championships. I had no second thoughts.”
At this point tribute ought be paid to David Sheppard who had to toss his plans out the window, and build courses to find the best going, and still managed to come up with great tracks!
The first of the big classes I got to see was the second qualifier for the Senior Champs, and it boiled down to a four way jump off for first place: CP Argento and Andrew Lamb, Clem Smith and Guru, Jamie Kermond and Yandoo Oaks Constellation, Stuart Jenkins and Fairview Aliquidam and Robert Goodwin and Co-Pilot (sorry absolutely no breeding information was supplied on the start lists…!)
Andrew Lamb and CP Argento were in it right to the end…
Clem Smith and Guru jump off in the final Senior Qualifier
Stuart Jenkins and Fairview Aliquidam – also in the jump off
Robert Goodwin and Co-Pilot – stylish winners
The class went to Robert Goodwin and the imported stallion, Co-Pilot, and, as usual, therein lies a tale:
“My girlfriend, Christy Gripske and I, we flew over to Germany about four years ago, looking for a horse for her. We looked at a fair few, and ended up picking him. Christy’s parents bought him, and brought him home for us. I jumped him the first year, then Christy had him the next couple of years and this year I’ve got him back again. She was very nice to let me ride him again…”
What was the aim when you went to buy him – a breeding stallion or a competition horse?
“We went to look for a Grand Prix horse for Christy. She was jumping 1.20s, 1.30s. It just needed to be bold, it didn’t need to be super careful, just bold and jump around a big track for her – confidently – and get some confidence for her. Co-Pilot was six when we bought him. He’s by Contender out of a Landadel mare.”
Your family has been breeding Warmblood horses for about a hundred years…
“Pretty close to that. Dad has been breeding them since about 1980, that’s when he started Warrego Warmblood Stud. Honestly he did it because he couldn’t afford to buy us super horses, so he thought he would breed them. He’s done quite well, we worked out the other day we have bred about 70 or 80 that have been registered and about one in six has gone on to two-star or above, or dressage Prix St Georges or World Cup.”
Still breeding at Warrego
How did he get started?
“Thoroughbred mares, then he got a Warmblood stallion, so most of ours are about half Thoroughbred, half Warmblood, and we’ve kept that balance most of the way through. We are starting to sneak in a little more Warmblood these days, but mostly half half.
Which Warmbloods was he using?
“My grand-dad Jim had a stallion, Lynjool Monopoly (by the imported German stallion Monopoly out of a Thoroughbred mare, a great grand-daughter of Precipitation). We had quite a bit of those bloodlines, Monopol, Lander… we did eventually breed it all out of them…”
We are all laughing at this point at the memory of some of those early Holsteiners that came to Australia…
You got rid of the pre-historic monsters…
“Big, boof-headed things they were. They jumped, but they were very old fashioned.”
So where did you go then?
“We used a horse called Conquest, who was by Contango II, for quite a few years, and bred quite a lot of dressage horses. After that we went to Warrego Sandon (by Warrego Jens – Salute / Lander – out of a mare by the Thoroughbred, Olrich) who was my good World Cup horse for a number of years. Sandon threw a lot of jumping horses. His dam, the Thoroughbred mare, Warrego Sally was the great great great great grand-daughter of Dad’s first mare, and she had ten foals, and five jumped World Cup – for a Thoroughbred brood mare, that is pretty good. Not amazing World Cup horses but they all jumped around nicely, and got some ribbons. Sandon is the only one that won one.”
Jessie Rice-Ward and Kiwi Guard – Junior Australian Champions
Are you still breeding horses?
“Yes, this year we had five, three by Sandon, and two by Co-Pilot. Unfortunately, Sandon died at the start of this year. He was nineteen and fit and sound, and Christy was going to Amateur him this year. That was my deal, I was going to swap him for Co-Pilot. We made the deal and Sandon died, but I still kept my part of the deal. He just died in the paddock, no injury, nothing, just died.”
I really enjoyed watching your horse in the class he won, because he really does canter… so many of them look like cocktail frankfurts with toothpicks stuck in the corners – but yours can bend a hock and get under himself…
“He has naturally a very good canter, but we’ve done a lot of years of producing it as well. The last line in the jump off was eight strides, he did it in seven and still had to wait there – because he can canter.”
Maddison Stephen and Yalambi’s Carmen – all the way from WA
Who taught you to do that stuff?
“Mostly Dad early on. I got some lessons from George Sanna when I was quite young. I spent quite a bit of time with Chuggy, a few years ago before he left. Jamie Coman has helped out a bit – and I watch a lot of Europeans ride. I rode ‘naturally’ until I was about 21, 22, then I thought I better knuckle down and learn to do it properly.”
How ambitious are you?
“VERY! The plan at the start of this year was to do as well in the World Cups with Co-Pilot, as we could, and see how he went and decide after that whether we keep him for another twelve months. He’s ten years old now, it’s a good age to sell him and make some money and go and buy a couple more and bring them over and do it again, or keep him for another twelve months, two years, and see what happens.”
Olivia Hamood and Carrado GHP, a classy 3rd
Two years would just about be the next WEG…
Robert is laughing. “Yeah, you can be hopeful, can’t you? He’s got the scope, and he’s got the ability, got the brain for it, and he is as sound as a bell. Ten is a good age to sell, but twelve is not that bad either…”
In the senior final after two rounds, it went to yet another jump off, with Jamie Kermond and Constellation, both recently back in Oz after being reserve for the Games in Rio, just edging out Andrew Lamb and CP Argento.
Constellation is by Conquistador out of an imported mare, Galaxie Pierraville by Jalisco. Argento is by the other stallion star of the Diamond B stable, Vivant, this time out of the imported mare, Argentina.
It was quite a homecoming for Jamie…
Welcome home – just how long were you in Europe?
“We were there three years all up, but each year we came home over Christmas – this last time we were probably only there for six months, but it felt like eighteen months.”
What were the good bits and the bad bits of your time over there?
“The shows we got to go to. We were lucky at the start to have Caracas, and then Quite Cassini, and this year, Constellation really stepped up when I lost Quite Cassini, and he did a great job. He got pretty close to the Olympics, but a few things went wrong at the wrong time for me, but I was very proud of what Constellation has done in the last six months – and now this tops it off for me!”
Two Mr Blues – Jono Berry and Turn It Blue (above), and Emily Riley and Rhapsody In Blue (below)…
Is that the main difference for you, that the quality of the shows in Europe are better?
“It sure is, but it is a bit hard to explain. There is so much money over there, and the horses are so good. It’s just numbers – there’s a lot more bad horses, but there are a lot more good horses as well. It is such a big money business, it’s like the Racing Industry here, except it’s jumping not racing.”
But the bad thing is that it is a lot harder to get into those shows?
“It is very hard. When Caracas and Quite Cassini were going very well, I got up the rankings, I was near two hundred, and once you get near there, you can get into most three-star shows and some of the four-stars. But if you want to get into the five-star shows, you have to pay…”
Lots of money…
“If you want to get into all those shows it costs, but when I was struggling for a show and really needed one, I rang Edwina (Tops-Alexander) and said I really need something in the next couple of weeks. She rang me back and said, Jessica Springsteen can’t go to Paris this week, you can have her spot. I still had to pay but nowhere near as much as if you have to pay for the whole circuit. That was when I went to Paris and Constellation won the six bar…”
Savannah Hopkinson and Zensation looking great ’til they missed a fence
As a rider, what do you think you’ve learnt over there?
“I’ve tried to change a bit. With hindsight, it would probably be good to go over there when you were younger, in your twenties and just work in a stable and learn a little more… Where I am now, you have to keep to your strengths and keep improving little parts. There is no point in me trying to go out and ride like Marcus Ehning or Ludger Beerbaum, because I’m not built like that, it’s just not our style. But if you work on things you think you are good at, and take on other things and other people’s training methods, it helps. I’ve been trying hard to work on my position and riding style. We had Sally Amsterdam who helped us with our dressage where I was based in Germany – she helped Matt Williams a lot when he had Leconte. She’s helped us a lot over the last couple of years.”
Coming into the Australian Champs, Constellation was just off the plane, did you think he was going to be competitive?
“I always thought he’d be competitive. He’s a very good horse, good at his verticals, he’s a careful horse, but he only had ten days, so I didn’t do too much with him at home. I gave him one jump with David Dobson who came down to give us a hand. He was really fresh and didn’t jump very well. I just gave him one more jump before we left for Werribee – working on a five stride line, jumping a vertical with a landing pole, trying to get him wait a little bit and take his time at the oxer. He jumped a bit better then, but was still very under-done. At the show, he just got better each round.”
Vicki Roycroft, winner of the Katherine Quilty Memorial Award with Congo Z
How far do you think he can go?
“He can jump anything, there’s no height of fence that he can’t jump, it’s really just working on his rideability. He’s a big horse, and he’s got a really good canter with his front legs, but his back legs just trail along a little bit. We’ve got to just keep getting him stronger behind, and if he learns to sit on his arse, which I think he can do, I don’t know how good he can be. The jump is definitely good enough.”
Your plans for the future?
“Just to stick here. Jamie (Winning) and I are getting married next year. We’ve got a couple of nice horses, and we’ve got some really nice young ones, so we are really excited by them. Go back to our lives, try to make a bit of money, and hopefully wait for the right horse to come along. I’d love to go back and have a crack at the World Cup final. I still haven’t got to the Olympics, and I want to do that – those are my goals…”
Jamie Kermond and Yandoo Oaks Constellation – Australian Showjumping Champions
Do you think you can do that out of Australia?
“Yes for sure you can. I think you need to go over there a few times to know what you are getting into, but now I’ve been there a few times, I know what to expect. Constellation has got two years before the next WEG – if they hold it – and I’d like to get him to the WEG, based from here. That’s what I am going to be pushing for.”
“I think I’ve been over there long enough, I’ve put in enough of an apprenticeship. I believe in the horse and I think I can get him ready from here. I’ll spend the next twelve months trying to get his flatwork better, he doesn’t need to change a lot, just get 10% better, and that would make a huge difference to the horse and it would be great if he could be selected for a WEG from here.”
Well one more piece of that jigsaw is already in place. Jamie’s parents-in-law to be, John and Kerrie Winning have just purchased a set of equipment from Frank Rothenberger, and better still, Frank is coming to Australia to build the courses at the Winnings’ Showcase of Showjumping on the 12 to the 16th of October at Richmond, NSW. When we can select horses and riders out of Australia, we will know showjumping in Australia has come of age, and it will be largely because of the unsung heroes who kept the Australian Champs happening, despite the challenges…
