Kitty King is crème de la crème

Consistent Kitty King scores with a brace of wins over a track that earns coursedesigner Nigel Taylor praise, and lockdown training pays dividends with low scores in abundance

- LUCY ELDER

Aston-le-Walls (X) and (4), Northants

KITTY KING continued her blistering form with two advanced wins – topping one section by a close-to 20-penalty margin.

Kitty, who jumped double clears on all her six rides from BE100 to advanced, repeated her double success from Aston’s July fixture, where she took top honours in a brace of open intermediate (OI) sections (report, 23 July).

Her Rio Olympic ride Ceylor LAN, owned by Diana Bown, Jacqueline Owen and Samantha Wilson, achieved the best dressage across all advanced sections with a score of 20.2. The pair added 6.8 cross-country time-penalties to their first-phase total, leaving them 19.3 penalties clear of Piggy March and Brookfield Quality.

“To have him back and feeling on top form was lovely,” said Kitty, who is campaigning the 13-year-old on the one-day circuit this year. “To win by nearly 20 marks just doesn’t happen in an advanced, not unless you’re Michael Jung!”

After dressage in Wednesday’s scorching heat, Thursday turned Aston tropical.

“‘Sprout’ just felt so happy – we went cross-country in torrential rain, but we both had great big smiles on our faces,” she added.

“We’ve changed his routine and my husband, Ben, has to take a lot of the credit. I ride him once a week or so, Ben hacks him and does a bit of lungeing, and I will do one schooling session with him a week. Not overtraining seems to be suiting him and he is thriving.”

Cristal Fontaine followed up last month’s Aston OI win with a victory in the competitive eight and nine-year-olds’ advanced.