Tom Grant wins in style at Cirencester Park Horse Trials
Sandersons UK sponsored rider Tom Grant had a fabulous start to the event season winning with Tommy Cruise in the intermediate sections and being placed with his other two horses - Penhills Optimax and A Moment in Time.
Due to the sheer number of entries, the organisers put on an extra day at Cirencester, a relatively new event replacing Gatcombe Park. The professional riders were moved to the Monday and the competition was fierce with several Badminton horses running and a plethora of top national riders present.
Tommy Cruise known in the yard as Pinkie, is 8 this year and relatively inexperienced. He grew 3 inches as a 5 year old and is still physically maturing, so has been taken slowly. There were, therefore, no expectations that he would win at Intermediate level so early in the year. He did a solid dressage test and scored 27.7. He then jumped clear showjumping over a track that was up to height and caused a fair number of problems throughout the day.
He was lying in first place at the start of his cross-country so the decision was taken to try and push him to complete in the optimum time - not something he has done at this level before. He proved worthy of the challenge and competed the course clear just one second over the time giving his a finishing score of 28.1 penalties.
We at Sandersons have supported this talented young rider for the last 4 years and could not be more proud of what he has achieved in this time. He has several horses competing at 4* level and a stable of talented horses coming up behind. We wish him all the best for this season. Tom is definitely a star of the future.
