Written by Tony Millett.
Day two: with the dreassage stage complete, Jonelle Price is still in the lead. But Germany's Bettina Hoy is now in second place - 3.50 points behind Ms Price. The end of day two sees other members of the New Zealnd team falling behind: Jesse Campbell is in 12th place - Tim Price in 40th - and Daniel Jocelyn in 72nd place.
After day one (Thursday, October 8) of the dressage phase of the CIC3 eventing competition at Boekelo in the Netherlands, Mildenhall-based Jonelle Price is in the lead. Forty-four of the 85 competitors have completed the dressage.
This is an important competition for the New Zealand eventing team as they go for the only team place at the Rio Olympics available to Group G nations - which takes in Oceania and South-East Asia.
New Zealand takes on Japan and Australia for that single team place, although the latter have already qualified by virtue of their placing at last year's World Equestrian Games.
Jonelle is riding eight-year-old black gelding Cloud Dancer - known as Marley. Her very low dressage score of 34.10 is 4.80 points above her nearest rival - Britain's Pippa Funnell on Billy the Biz.
Jonelle and Marley's latest victory came in the CIC3* for 8-9 year-olds at the Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials last month. Ranked fifth in the world, Price finished second at the four-star Luhmuhlen in Germany and fifth at Burghley.
Also in the New Zealand team at Boekelo are Dan Jocelyn on Dassett Cool Touch (currently lying at 36), Tim Price on Xavier Faer and Jesse Campbell aboard Kaapachino. Tim Price and Jesse Campbell 's dressage competition will be on Friday.
If the New Zealand team do not clinch the Rio place at Boekelo, they will have to wait for the international rankings to see if they go to Brazil.
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Written by Tony Millett.
CoulstyRichard Hannon Jnr's second season as trainer at the Herridge and Everleigh stables near Marlborough has been another resounding success. So far in the season he has had 174 UK winners, with prize money of nearly £3.5 million - including the 2000 Guineas winner, a winner at Royal Ascot and seven Group 1 winners.
Coming up to the flst racing season's grand finale, the Qipco British Champions Day at Ascot (Saturday, October 17), the Hannon yard's hopes rest with the four year-old bay colt Coulsty. He will run in the Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakes - now a Group 1 race with prize money of £600,000.
In August Coulsty was beaten by half a length at Newbury under Frankie Dettori on good-to-soft ground over seven furlongs. So perhaps the recent deluges will be good for him. On his September outing at Doncaster he came in fifth of fifteen runners - again over seven furlongs.
Coulsty will be running against a rare entry in a British race from a training yard in Singapore - Emperor Max.
Richard Hannon Snr retired at the end of 2013, but is still part of the Herridge team. His amazing career began in 1970 with nine horses and he went on to be champion trainer five times and bring home over 4,000 winners. The family have been at Herridge for 20 years.
It has in one respect been a strange season for the Hannon family. Their long-term stable jockey (and champion jockey) Richard Hughes (Richard Jnr's brother-in-law) retired and is now training for the flat just over the border in Hampshire.
At the start of the season the yards had about 270 horses. By this stage of the year many have been sent to the sales or are already at the winter quarters. When Marlborough News Online visted Herridge on the wettest of wet Tuesdays, Richard Hannon was at the Newmarket sales.
The yearling on the right was sired by Sir Prancealot - a sprint specialist trained at Herridige and retired to stud in November 2012 after three wins from his four races.They have already taken in a new cardre of yearlings - and some of them were out exercising on the all-weather circuit. In all the stables expect about 100 yearlings to be broken-in and exercised over the winter.
Richard Hannon had two other horses entered for Champions Day: Toormore and Burnt Sugar.
Four year-old Toormore has been one of the stable's stars this season - winning the Qatar Lennox Stakes at Goodwood in July. And travelling to Turkey's Veliefendi Racecourse last month to win the International Topkapi Trophy two-and-a-half lengths clear of Perfect Warrior.
He ran in Longchamp's post-Arc Sunday card gaining 'an honourable bronze'. His lifetime earnings to date are just shy of £900,000. He will now be rested until he goes to race in Hong Kong in December.
Three year-old colt Burnt Sugar was entered for Champions Day Balmoral Handicap. And although BBC Radio 4's Today programme tipped him to win the £112,000 prize in last Saturday's Totescoop6 Challenge Cup at Ascot - he had already been declared a non-runner due to a sore hind foot.
Illuminate - showing her speedFinally, here is a Hannon-trained horse to watch next season: Illuminate. This compact two year-old bay filly started the season with an unbeaten run of victories in May, June and July. Then last month at Newmarket she was beaten by half a length in the Group 1 Chieveley Park Stakes - ironically by the horse named Lumiere.
The Hannon website recorded that neither trainer or jockey, Frankie Dettori, 'felt she lost anything in defeat'. Hannon said: "lluminate travelled well and she has run right up to her form - she beat Besharah a neck at Newmarket and now the superiority was a neck - but she just got leg-weary on the rising ground."
"That will be it for this season, but we still look at Illuminate as a 1000 Guineas filly, and she'll have her prep-race in the Fred Darling at Newbury in April."
Certainly a filly to keep a close eye on next season.
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Written by Tony Millett.
Sam Twiston-Davies (left) & Chelsea approaching the finishCharity races have been in the news recently - Victoria Pendleton (retired cycling champion) and Tony McCoy (retired jump jockey champion) have both made headlines riding for charity at some of England's premier racecourses.
They were both riding race horses. Chelsea Pearce won her charity race at Chepstow Racecourse on a camel - what is more in the final she came home ahead of the highly rated jockey Sam Twiston-Davies who had been the runaway winner of the three heats.
Though still at school, Chelsea Pearce, who is based near Marlborough, is making her mark as an accomplished eventer.
The race was sponsored by William Hill and was to provide funds for the Bristol-based Paul's Place charity. Paul's Place works to improve the lives of physically disabled adults across South Gloucestershire, Bath and North-East Somerset, North Somerset and Bristol.
Chelsea - in the orange and light blue silks - led all the way in the final race: "It was for a great cause - and I had a wonderful day!" It certainly does not look the easiest of rides.
You can still support Paul's Place at this Justgiving web-page.
They're off...
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Written by Tony Millett.
Tracy Richards with RosieFor a growing company in the equine and pet care business, Tracy Richards' Aqueos Care is an excellent example of the way SMEs ('small and medium sized enterprises') are run in the twenty-first century business economy.
Aqueos develops, makes and markets a growing range of ground-breaking alcohol and bleach free eco-friendly disinfectants for horses and dogs. They use a technological breakthrough to produce a water-based disinfectant that kills 99.999 per cent of known bacteria, fungi and viruses - and is no more hazardous to anything else than distilled water.
Managing Director Tracy Richards works from home. There is no manufacturing plant at her home near Pewsey. There is not even a warehouse nearby. How did this flourishing business start and how does it work?
Tracy Richards was the managing director of a clothing wholesale company when it was suddenly taken over. The new owners wanted her to stay on for a year, but she decided to leave.
She did not want to work for anyone else and when a colleague showed her a new technique for making disinfectants for dentists, she spotted how it could be applied to animals. She was, after all, a long-term rider - owning a grey called Rosie - and a dog owner.
Four years later and after some very expensive safety testing of each application of the technology, Aqueos has 28 products - split evenly between equine and canine use. And Aqueos now has DEFRA approval for general orders.
The complex biochemistry involved is probably only really understood at post-graduate level. But simply put Aqueos uses a highly stable agent and a complex blending technology to combine a number of biocides which in tiny amounts work together - each one enhancing the effect of the other.
AQUEOS SHAMPOO PACK SHOT For example, Aqueos' horse shampoo kills that proven 99.999 per cent of most bacteria, fungi and viruses including strangles and ringworm. It is so fast acting that it does its work within 30 seconds of contact - and it is gentle to the horse's skin.
This technology also gives the disinfectant a long lasting effect because it disrupts the surface tension of the treated area and makes it difficult for new micro-organisms to attach themselves to it.
The products are manufactured by a firm in Gloucestershire - “Very much made in Britain” - and she uses a pay-as-you-go warehouse in Calne which dispatches and delivers orders to wholesalers around the country and to retailers. Local retailers include TH White and the Wadswick Country Store in Corsham.
Tracy is in the process of employing her first full-time staff members: sales agents. She has one on board so far and hopes to build-up a team of about six regional agents.
She has recruited a number of well-known figures from the equestrian world as 'Brand Ambassadors'. These include eventer Kitty King who earlier this month secured a silver medal for the British team at the European Championships in Scotland increasing her profile with a Horse and Hound cover photo. And last weekend she came third at the Blenheim International CIC3* competition. Kitty King is based near Chippenham.
Other local Aqueos ambassadors are the up-and-coming young Marlborough eventer Chelsea Pearce, and the young show jumper Oscar Hobby who is the son of eventer Fiona Hobby whose stables are close by in Pewsey.
Tracy also works closely with the Greatwood charity near Marlborough which uses retired racehorses to help disadvantaged children. In particular they find Aqueos 's hand sanitising foam a great boon for keep visiting children safe.
Tracy with her PATS awardEarlier this year Aqueous put down an industry marker at the national Pets and Aquatic Trade Show (PATS). Facing 170 new product entries Aqueos was awarded Best Pet Care product for its innovative spray plaster for horses and pets.
This can be sprayed directly onto animals and protects minor cuts and grazes from water, dirt and bacteria - it gives a bandage-like protection and stays elastic but is still breathable and waterproof. Tracy Richards was delighted to win the award: "That was quite exciting as we were up against some big brands."
Tracy and her husband Tim have two sons. The elder is at Hartpury College in Gloucestershire studying equine business management and the younger is at Pewsey School working for his GCSEs.
Keeping stables and kennels free of bugs with safe disinfectants and keeping horses and dogs safe from infections and humans safe too is what the Aqueos range does for establishments with one horse or dog - or with a string of ponies or a yard full of expensive racehorses. And if there's a bevy of hens stalking round a stable yard, they and their hutches can be treated with a special Aqueos poultry spray.
Rosie helps with a pack shot
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