Oakden Keeps It in Scotland

Blair signs off with a final farewell, at which Wills Oakden pilots Keep It Cooley to a third successive victory here

- BECKY MURRAY

“HE’S king of the castle now, king of Blair Castle,” said an emotional Wills Oakden after claiming the CCI4*-L title to complete a historic hat-trick of back-to-back Blair Castle wins with Keep It Cooley.

The pair won the CCI2*-L title in 2022 and the CCI3*-L in 2023, and this victory marked a fitting fairy-tale ending to the final event at Atholl Estates, leaving very few dry eyes among spectators.

“This was my late step father’s favourite event, and this horse, Michael, is named after him. To come and do this, three in a row, is very special,” said Wills.

Wills and the nine-year-old Ramiro B gelding, who were runners-up in the Burgham CCI4*-S last month, were lying in fifth after posting a 34.8 dressage, a mark Wills described as “pretty ouch”.

But they delivered a heart-filled performance across country, in which they produced the fastest jumping clear to add just 10.8 time-penalties and top the leaderboard going into the final phase. Seven combinations from 13 jumped clear acrosscountry, and while Alec Lochore’s track didn’t cause any particular problems, the less-than-ideal ground conditions thanks to continued rain added to the challenge.

“With the ground at first we thought, ‘Should we save him?’ – but he’s not going to make history standing in the stable. We thought we’d bring him out and see what happened, and he was a warrior. I was just so proud of him to dig that deep,” said Wills, who won last year’s Blair CCI4*-L title with A Class Cooley.

“I had to keep changing plan – because of the ground the distances that you walked weren’t quite popping up and I had to keep creating space. It was about using your head and working with your horse, and the clock became secondary.”

Dressage leaders Tom McEwen and MHS Brown Jack added 17.2 time-penalties to their 28.7 score to sit in provisional second ahead of the showjumping, with just 0.3 of a penalty separating the top two.