Bullimore Zooms To Convincing Conquest

Sarah Bullimore enjoys a welcome result after being left off Euro long-list

- Catherine Austen

SARAH BULLIMORE and Lilly Corinne zoomed to a convincing win in advanced section T, finishing two seconds under the time across country. Their dressage score of 23.4 was so good that a pole down in the showjumping was irrelevant.

“I didn’t feel like I was going flat out — I just let her run, and she is fast,” said Sarah. “This was a welcome result. I’ve been trying to second-guess what the selectors didn’t like about her [the pair were left off the long-list for the European Championships] when she’s gone so well this year.”

The 13-year-old mare, owned by Sarah’s husband Brett and the Seahorse Syndicate, now heads to Blenheim for the Event Rider Masters final, and then Pau CCI4*.

She was the only one to make the cross-country time in her class, and just four horses across the three advanced sections did so.

The other three were in the eight and nine-year-old class: winners Izzy Taylor and Spring power, third-placed Holly Woodhead and Mr Sneezy, and Paul Tapner and Counterparty, sixth.

Jeremy and Andrea Brereton’s Spring power, an eight-year-old by Power Blade, is only with Izzy while regular jockey Jodie Amos recovers from being kicked in the stomach at Hartpury. But Izzy is the master of catch rides, and the pair finished on their dressage score of 31.1.

“He’s a cool horse who pricks his ears and wants to do his job,” said Izzy, who had just got back from winning both the CCI3* and the CIC3* at Millstreet.