Australia’s most elite equestrian athletes will compete this weekend at the nation’s premiere dressage event – the Sydney CDI. While final official Olympic team selections take place on the other side of the world in Germany, an Australia-based contingent will make a last-ditch effort for inclusion on the Australian Olympic team.
Part of the EFA-supported ‘Return of the Horse’ series of events - a move to get equestrian sports back on track after the crippling effects of EI – the Sydney CDI has featured on the Australian equestrian calendar for more than 15 years.
Hosting international-level competitions, together with the crème-de-la-crème of young horse classes, the Sydney CDI showcases Australia’s best dressage riders and horses.
With all Olympic short-listed competitors, bar one, currently based in the Northern Hemisphere, and all competing head-to-head in two selection events in May, there will be at least one top level competitor at the Sydney CDI who will be trying to change the selectors’ minds.
Grand Prix competitor, Heath Ryan, originally entered on two horses, one of which has been short-listed for Beijing – Greenoaks Dundee. Given the closeness of the German-based selection event to the Sydney CDI, Mr Ryan has opted to fly the horse to Germany prior to the CDI in order to allow sufficient time for ‘Dundee’ to settle-in.
Meanwhile, Hunter Valley-based Ryan says he can win the Grand Prix at the CDI on his stunning black stallion ‘Regardez Moi’. “I think Regardez Moi is the best horse in Australia in Grand Prix dressage. I want to be the first to crack 70% - he’s that good. I am trying hard to work towards that because I want to take him to Beijing. I am not rich so I can’t afford to take both horses to Germany for the selection events so I will be appealing to the selectors to choose the best horse.”
Ryan sees Rachel Sanna and the Bev Edwards-owned stallion Jaybee Alabaster as a real threat in the Grand Prix event, commenting that “Rachel knows nothing else other than going for the jugular (in the nicest possible way). She did a rip-roaring display at the Sydney three-day event recently and will explode at the CDI. She will leave people’s mouths open and will be a huge challenge!”
Delighted to hear Heath Ryan is ‘running scared’, mother of two Rachel Sanna described her preparation for the CDI as “wet – we are travelling well and all prepared for a wet arena! We will just put our best foot forward and a top placing would be very good. Jaybee Alabaster and I are a new combination to Grand Prix – we can put together a nice Grand Prix test but it needs seasoning. There has been so little competition because of EI; I try to take him out at every opportunity.”
Another seriously experienced Grand Prix competitor who Ryan says you can “never write her off” is Judy Dierks. Married to Australia’s previous Olympic coach, Clemens Dierks, Judy has been riding at the Sydney CDI since its early days at Lochinvar. Like Rachel Sanna, Judy described her horse HP Frontier as “an inexperienced young Grand Prix horse. There is nothing I can really do to prepare him for it – the stands in the indoor at SIEC are higher than their heads, they are in there on their own and they can’t see another horse – that is the greatest challenge.”
Dierks, who represented Australia at the World Equestrian Games at Den Hague, Netherlands, in 1994 in a team with Mary Hanna and Maurie Bruce, commented that “the CDI is one of our biggest, if not the biggest, dressage competitions. The Nationals are bigger but they are all levels – the CDI is predominantly FEI level (international). Being a CDI it’s something for everyone to aim towards – it is inspirational.”
With one of the largest fields of Grand Prix competitors in its history, some friendly competitive rivalry and approximately 40 trade stands at which to shop yourself senseless, the 2008 Sydney CDI is shaping up to be a nail-biter and a whole lot of fun. Saturday’s events feature a stallion show with eleven top stallions on parade, together with a full program of events, all under cover and culminating in the spectacular Grand Prix Freestyle to Music on Saturday night.
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