Woodside, Calif.—Oct. 3  

Lauren Billys and the Purdy Syndicate’s Castle Larchfield Purdy held a 4.6-point lead before the cross-country phase of the CIC*** at the Woodside International Horse Trials, and she used every bit of that lead to eke out her victory over James Alliston on his own Tivoli. Billys added 4.4 time penalties, to win by just .2 penalties.

“[The cross-country course] felt a lot like you were at the end of your reins, pushing on to the narrows. My horse answered all the questions and I’m proud of him,” said Billys, of Carmel Valley, Calif. “I knew I had 10 seconds, and I wanted to be fast, but I always get time penalties—it’s something I’m working on. But, he was a good boy and came in just under, so I got lucky today. I lost this three-star two years ago by .4 (penalties), so I was really happy that I made it this time.”

Billys represents Puerto Rico and her win elevates her points standing within the group of Central and South American countries that are eligible to send a qualified individual rider to the Olympic Gamess next year in Rio de Janeiro. Billys was also awarded the CTETA Founder’s Cup perpetual trophy, presented to the winner of the CIC*** in honor of Robert E. Smith whose idea and drive started and sustained the Combined Training Equestrian Team Alliance, the original founders of the Horse Park at Woodside. 

Of the 10 CIC*** horses that started cross-country, seven completed the course with no jumping penalties, but only three—Alliston with Tivoli and Parker, and Mary Burke with Prince William—finished double-clear.

Said Alliston, “I thought the time was quite tight. [My first horse] Parker is really fast usually, and he wasn’t way inside the time like he can be, and since Tivoli isn’t as fast as Parker for sure I had to go really fast.”

Both Billys and Alliston had positive comments about the changes to the course that British Olympian Ian Stark had created.

“I thought it was really a forward and galloping course that required you to be on a very forward but accurate step,” said Billys. “I thought it suited my horse really well. He loves to gallop, and he’s a big-strided horse.”

“I thought it was really good, very gallopy, which is nice, and a lot of left-hand corners, right-hand corners, skinnies—every question really,” noted Alliston. “The last water complex was something different we haven’t seen at Woodside for a while, so something different for the horses.”

In the CIC**, flawless rounds kept the top spots unchanged after the cross-country test. Kelly Pugh and David Garrett’s Corazon jumped double-clear to maintain their lead of 39.8 over Amber Levine and her own Carry On, who added just 0.8 time penalties to finish on 43.6 penalties. Levine and her second mount, her own and Valerie Mackey’s Guiness St. James moved from eighth place to fourth on a double-clear. Sara Selmer and her own TK Kreisler held their third-placed position.

“I’m still getting to know this horse,” said Pugh. “He has a lot of gallop and is really confident out there, so galloping but then coming back are the kinds of things I was trying to do. There are a lot of questions out there that helped back him, but he’s a pretty honest guy—you do your job and he does his.

“This was by far our best course,” she continued. “He’s easy to make time on, pretty quick across country, and I was able to take my time to set him up properly and get the striding I wanted. I felt like the questions didn’t let up the whole way round.”

Of the 21 CIC** starters on the cross-country course, 13 finished with no jumping penalties and four—Levine and Pugh plus Josh Barnacle and Celtic King and Kim Liddell in Eye of The Storm—finished double-clear.

In the CIC*, there was a shake-up in the overnight standings, but Ruth Bley and her venerable Silver Sage kept the top spot, adding nothing to their overnight score of 42.7. Overnight second-placed Julie Flettner and Ping Pong came to grief at The Equine Insurance Splash; third-placed Megan Traynham and Lord Lombardi had a stop at the oxer at fence 9.

When fourth-placed Whitney Tucker and Chavez Ravine withdrew before the start, it propelled fifth-placed Kelsey Holmes on Heart of Gold SE into the second spot.

“I loved it; it was great,” said Bley. “There were some tricky parts, especially the first water. I was surprised on my first horse [Rodrigue Du Granit] when he got a little sucked back, and I thought my second horse [Silver Sage] would be stronger, but he actually sucked back more.”

Of the 25 cross-country starters on the CIC*, 18 completed without jumping penalties, and 10 went double clear.

“I was close [to the time] with [Rodrigue Du Granit], the sports car,” said Bley. “And it felt like I was really going, so I really went on with [Silver Sage] and he was not so close so it worked out well. 

“[The course was] such a change from last year—a world of difference between the one-star and the prelim. It’s nice for Sage to finally win one,” concluded Bley with a smile.