Halliday enjoys winning weekend at Firle Place International

Professional dual sportswoman Liz Halliday returned to winning ways at Firle Place International Horse Trials last weekend thanks to a stellar performance from one of Chailey Stud’s most promising talents.

Following a scintillating start to the season, which included qualifying for the British Novice Championships, Trevor (Endymion Entrechat) continued his eventing action in style by claiming victory in the Open Novice category.

Lying second after a typically classy Dressage performance, the pair produced faultless Show Jumping and Cross Country rounds under intense pressure from the equally sure-footed chasing pack to first overhaul the leaders and then maintain their slender advantage until the finish.

Indeed Sunday would prove a particularly successful day for Liz who finished fifth in her Novice section with Oscar (Viscount Oscar).

There was little to suggest the duo were making their first competitive appearance together since mid-May after recording what would be Oscar’s best ever Dressage score to date. Just one rail down in the Show Jumping arena followed by a near-perfect Cross Country test helped make sure of an extremely encouraging result.

Earlier in the weekend Chailey Stud favourite Shirley (Showtime Shirley) had been joined by Pen (Penrose II) in the BE90 category. Although Liz had to ride Hors Concours in this section, each produced promising rounds across all three disciplines, with Shirley accumulating the third best score in her section.

Bank Holiday Monday saw Liz travel to a new event at Wellington in Hampshire where Cooley (HHS Cooley, pictured) had been entered for his second-ever Intermediate competition. Once again his excellent rate of development continued with a positive Dressage test followed by confident and clear Show Jumping and Cross Country rounds that secured his qualification for international two-star competition.

Liz Halliday: “All in all it was a very good weekend for all of the horses entered. For me the standouts were Trevor and Cooley who have both made such progress since arriving at Chailey Stud. After a slight dip in form Trevor was outstanding at Firle Place and again showed why he is such a great prospect for the future. Cooley also continues to go from strength-to-strength. It was obvious how eager he was to perform at Wellington and he just got better and better as the event progressed. I am planning to take him and Fox to Ballindenisk in a couple of weeks which should provide a real test of their abilities.”

Before that trip to Ireland Liz will be sampling horsepower of a different kind when she drives a supercar as part of the Castrol Women in Motorsport parade at Chelsea AutoLegends this Sunday (September 2). The special event will be staged as part of the British Women Racing Drivers’ Club’s 50th anniversary, which is being celebrated at the prestigious London event this year.

For more information on Liz Halliday, please visit www.lizhalliday.com.