Buckley takes inspiration from Brash

Simon Buckley finds the winning formula, Annabel Shields continues her tremendous purple patch and Holly Smith makes a successful visit north of the border

- BECKY MURRAY

THE Royal Highland Showcase took on a different format this year with no spectators, instead operating live-streaming to viewers at home. But the lack of crowds didn’t take away from the spectacle of the feature classes.

Simon Buckley took Friday’s 1.55m international stairway on 12-year-old Elia as a big, open water proved influential with only four clears from 23 in the first round.

“When you need him to turn up, he turns up,” laughed Simon. “We were first to go [in the first round] which is always hard, but he’s a quick horse and he’s better suited to that pace so I was the fastest clear.

“The jump-off was a long slog; I felt my horse was a little tired and could maybe make a mistake, so I thought we had to keep up a good pace and hopefully still be on the right side. I know from watching ‘Brashie’ [Scott Brash] and all those Globals, it’s an advantage to go at the end [in the jump-off] and it turned out good.”

Course-designer Mark McGowan’s team gave the riders plenty to think about in the grand prix with big square oxers, the Highland’s famous riderscarer – the Aberdeen Angus cow planks – and a penultimate treble combination.