LONDON (AP) — The queen’s granddaughter Zara Phillips heads into the grueling heart of the Olympic equestrian eventing competition Monday, racing her horse around a twisting course in London’s oldest royal park that’s been outfitted with 28 fences, hedges and water jumps.
The thrilling cross-country portion of the three-discipline eventing competition is designed to test horse and rider’s endurance and guts – and the 3.5-mile course up and down the hills of Greenwich Park fit the bill. There were razor-sharp turns, blind 2-yard drops and tricky combination jumps – each with a very British story behind it.
The first few horses out Monday seemed to handle the course relatively well. Christopher Burton of Australia finished well under the set pace time of 10 minutes 3 seconds – even though, as the “pathfinder” for the team, he was merely supposed to be testing the course to report to subsequent team riders, not necessarily gunning for a top individual finish.
But a few riders had penalty-making refusals, and riders from Ireland and Belarus fell from their mounts.
Thousands lined the narrow course to watch the horses, getting an unusually close view and enjoying a festive picnic atmosphere in the grass under sunny skies. It remained to be seen which royal might come to cheer Phillips on for what she has said is her horse’s strongest event.
On Sunday, her grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, joined her mother, Princess Anne, in the VIP stands of the main stadium of Greenwich Park to watch her earn a respectable score in the dressage portion of her Olympic debut.
With 46.10 penalty points for a slight mistake, Phillips landed in 24th out of 74 riders with cross-country and show jumping to go.
Phillips said her horse High Kingdom, an 11-year-old bay gelding, was looking forward to Monday’s cross-country, a timed competition with penalties for refusals, falls and excess time.
“He’s a good jumper. That’s his stronger phase,” she said. “He’s quite quick and easy to turn, so hopefully it’ll be good.” And after days practicing dressage, a standard test of walk, trot and canter that demonstrates the horse’s obedience, Phillips said High Kingdom was ready for action.
“I think he wants to get out there now. He’s a bit bored of dressage,” she said.
What he’ll face are English rose gardens to jump over, a Tower of London combination jump in the main stadium and even a swampy scene from the British children’s classic “The Wind in the Willows.” One tricky jump depicts the prime meridian, which runs nearby. Another is a crescent moon in a nod to the Royal Observatory on the park grounds.
The course starts with a diamond-framed hedge in honor of Queen Elizabeth II’s recently celebrated Diamond Jubilee. It ends with a giant, upside-down horseshoe flanked by two equine sculptures made entirely out of recycled horseshoes.
Phillips, a former world and European eventing champion who is 14th in line to the British throne, said she was thrilled represent Britain on home soil. Equestrian events are being staged at Greenwich Park, the oldest royal park in London, which dates from 1433. The main equestrian arena sits in front of Queen’s House, a 17th-century building designed as a summer palace for Queen Anne of Denmark, the wife of James I.
“To be here at home is an amazing feeling, and you just want to try and do your best for the team,” Phillips said.
Cheers and applause broke out as Phillips rode into the stadium Sunday, and cheers erupted again when she finished. Princess Anne, wearing a bright red canvas hat, applauded politely.
Anne competed at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, but her horse fell going over a jump during the cross-country event. Phillips father, Capt. Mark Phillips, fared better, winning team gold at Munich in 1972 and silver in Seoul 16 years later. The elder Phillips was in the stands Sunday to cheer his daughter on, sitting a few seats from his ex-wife. He’s a coach of the U.S. equestrian team.
After the dressage portion, Germany was in the lead with 119 penalty points followed by Australia with 122.1 and Britain with 127. The United States was seventh with 138.8. As in golf, the low score wins.
Japan’s Yoshiaki Oiwa posted the best individual dressage score on Noonday de Conde with 38.1 points, landing in a surprise first place.
“I still can’t believe it,” Oiwa said. “Probably everyone is a little bit shocked. No one was expecting it. There’s very little Japanese media here.”
But in eventing, anything goes, and team leader Germany – which won both team and individual gold in the 2008 Olympics – said Monday’s cross-country would likely shake up both team and individual standings.
“It’s a three-day competition and not a dressage show,” said German coach Hans Melzer. “I think tomorrow is a new competition, and everyone starts with zero.”
Course designer Sue Benson said she was aiming for a course challenging enough for the most experienced riders but not so tough that lesser horses would wipe out, fearing the bad reputation that could give the sport on such a high-profile stage.
“The last thing we want is millions of viewers never wanting to watch again because they’re seeing tired horses,” she told reporters last week during a walk-through of the course. “It’s been a balance.”
Mark Todd of New Zealand, who won individual gold in eventing in 1984 and 1988 and was in third place going into Monday, said there were plenty of challenges for the horses, all of whom will be running the course for the first time.
“The fences themselves aren’t difficult,” he said. “When you add in the hills, twists and turns, and the riders are trying to make the time, there are plenty of places where you can make a mistake.”
And then there’s the very real threat of rain: On Sunday, fierce rain and lightning forced a brief suspension of dressage.
“If it rains and gets slippery, that will make it a different ballgame,” Todd said.
The seventh-place U.S. team faced a double whammy heading into Monday’s competition – a disappointing dressage result and a poor draw.
On Sunday, Phillip Dutton of West Grove, Pa., earned 44.3 and 19th place out of 74 riders on Mystery Whisper, while Will Coleman of Gordonsville, Va., scored 46.3 on Twizzel and sits 26th, adding to the scores their teammates earned Saturday.
The Americans must send their riders out first in cross-country, meaning they will need to gallop all out without knowing the standings of the other riders, who can ride more conservatively knowing precisely what kind of score they need.
The time to meet is 10 minutes, 3 seconds. Penalties for exceeding the optimum time will likely separate the eventual winners from the rest of the pack.
Benson, the course designer, has said she only expects one or two horses to make the time, given the hills and turns that will slow the horses down.
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Margaret Freeman contributed to this report.
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