Blyth Tait, the reigning Olympic three-day event champion, heads the cast list for the Necarne Castle international, which gets underway today near Templepatrick, Co Antrim. The original Co Fermanagh venue was hit by an outbreak of the highly-contagious equine bacterial infection strangles and at the last moment, the entire event had to be re-sited at the Mackean family home, Loughanmore, site for the European junior championships five years ago.
The New Zealander, whose latest in a sensational succession of wins came at Burghley 10 days ago, has rides in both the one and two-star competitions at Loughanmore. He runs Ian Mackenzie's Abalou gelding Eze in the two-star and has the seven-yearold Haka for the one-star.
Haka suffered a severe colic attack on Tuesday night, which his rider believes was brought on by travel stress after the journey from Tait's English base. The horse responded well to treatment, however, and after a paraffin drench to dislodge the blockage in his gut, Haka is now ready to put his best hoof forward in the dressage arena this morning.
A total of 62 runners were given the go-ahead in yesterday's onestar horse inspection, with 43 starters declared fit for the twostar challenge. But the Mahon's Hotel junior field was reduced to 25 when Robbie Collins' Buster failed the inspection and Lindsey McDonald's second horse, The Flying Dutchman, was withdrawn after being held for re-inspection.
Saturday's cross-country, the focal point of the three-day event, will be run on ground that in racing parlance would definitely be on the soft side of good. Blyth Tait conquered horrendous underfoot conditions when finishing first and second at Burghley, but his runners there - Chesterfield and Aspyring - are experienced campaigners, and the sloppy conditions at Loughanmore will be more testing for his younger horses.
Several riders have said that they will wait and see if the weather takes a turn for the worse before deciding if they will run across country, but Britain's William Fox-Pitt has already taken the precaution of entering his horse Moon Man in the French two-star at Pau, which closes the season at the end of October.
William Fox-Pitt, a member of Britain's gold medal team at last year's open European championships, was due to travel to Rome at the end of the month for the World Equestrian Games, but his top horse, the Irish-bred Cosmopolitan II, is lame and has been withdrawn in a spate of mishaps that has struck the British team.
Fox-Pitt is not the only highranking member of the two-star field who will be doing his best to outdo Blyth Tait however. Polly Clark, the 24-year-old who won at Blenheim last weekend with Arthur Comyn's Westlord, could put up a strong challenge with her Windsor national winner The Tonka Toy.
The Shropshire rider has also got a last-minute leg-up onto Arthur Comyn's one-star horse Westawake, which was due to be ridden by his daughter Emma. A family bereavement forced Emma's withdrawal, but the Comyns have a more than able deputy in Polly Clark.
A strong Irish contingent will be doing its best to try and keep the honours in all three classes on home territory.
