After two exciting qualifying rounds over the previous two days, an enthusiastic crowd gathered this morning at the beautiful Takapoto Estate to see the final of the Amateur Tour. Thirty-six combinations, including riders from Canada, Brazil, Australia, Mexico, Scotland, and Germany lined up under a brilliant blue sky, in what turned out to be an exciting class.

Not only would the winners of the Takapoto Amateur Tour be decided this morning but for those participating riders, the winners of the Global Amateur Tour event would be determined.

The course, held on the APL sand arena proved to be a challenge for many of the combinations. Only eight combinations were able to complete the course with less than eight penalties and of these, just three rounds were recorded. The fastest of these three was Megan Schischka and Hollywood Wannabe.

Megan Schischka and Hollywood Wannabe

The three-way jump off opened with Megan Schischka and her palomino gelding, Hollywood Wannabe who completed the course in 42.26 seconds with a single rail. Next was Danielle Wheeler and her grey gelding, CP Aurelio. Two rails down meant that the best they could hope for was a second placing.

Danielle Wheeler and CP Aurelio

Third and last to jump in the jump off was Rachael Bentall and one of the youngest horses in the competition, the 7-year-old mare SB Smokescreen. There was no mystery about what they had to do to win; ride a fault free round and that is exactly what they did. While Bentall could have taken a conservative approach and rode carefully, she attacked the course to finish in the quickest time of the three, in 41.98 seconds. As the only double clear combination in the field, Bentall and SB Smokescreen were deserved winners.

Rachael Bentall and SB Smokescreen

The top six placings in the Takapoto Amateur Tour were

The Results of the Takapoto round of the GAT are as follows: