Swizzle In keeps his lead intact

Equestrianism

Having produced a marvellous test on Swizzle In on Thursday, Andrew Hoy held his overnight lead throughout yesterday's second day of dressage. The Australian rider will go into today's cross-country with an advantage of 4.4 points over New Zealand's Mark Todd on Broadcast News.

Yesterday's competitors failed to shift any of Thursday's top five from their overnight placings. Indeed, only Leslie Law, now joint sixth on Perryfields George, managed to sneak into the top eight.

Law was delighted with his eight-year-old mount, who has two wins and a second to his credit in advanced sections of one-day events this year. "He's very capable across country, but this is his first three-star competition so he could easily have a silly glance-off somewhere," Law said.

At least Law has a longer partnership with his mount than Hoy, who first sat on Swizzle In just over two weeks ago. Even this brief acquaintance was interrupted, for the horse was found to have some small corns on a foot shortly afterwards and his participation here was in doubt until he came right at the start of the week.

Hoy believes the first part of the course will encourage horses to get into their stride. "That's a good thing in my situation as I haven't ridden the horse in a competition before," he said.

He doubts whether he will take the fast route at the KT Green Kidney Pond after walking it the first time and trying to see it through the horse's eyes. It consists of a rounded fence into water, followed by a right-hand turn to a log which has a big drop of nearly six feet (again into water) on the landing side.

"I was walking through the water and it was not until I reached the fence that I realised just how serious a drop it is," Hoy said. Swizzle In could, he feels, be caught equally unawares, so he will probably take the long route there.

Mark Phillips, who designed the course, will be interested to see how many tackle the fast route at this particular obstacle. "If the first three make a nonsense of it, you'll probably only see five or six attempt it," he said. "But if the first three make it look easy, most of the others are likely to go that way."

Results, Digest, page 29