EQUESTRIAN: Olympians Chris Burton and Edwina Tops-Alexander have jumped to the podium over the weekend.

Burton's victory provides a fairytale ending

Chris Burton has won his second consecutive individual eventing crown at the prestigious World Equestrian Festival at Aachen, providing the mare with which he partnered, HP Leilani, with a fitting way to retire from competitive life.

The 17 year old mare, who Burton represented Australia with at the London 2012 Olympic Games and 2010 World Equestrian Games, will return to Australia in September for retirement and Burton did not imagine that her final outing would have all the makings of a fairytale. 

Originally Leilani was supposed to retire after London, then after Badminton, but then Burton had asked her owners, Jean and Jade Findlay, if he could ride her in Aachen. They consented and the Australian took this opportunity to claim the victory.

“I didn’t expect to win. The Germans have simply been so good lately. I am overjoyed,” the 31-year-old beamed.

Following the dressage phase, the Australian combination was sitting in fifth position but a clear show jumping round moved them into third and well within reach of the title with just the cross county phase to contest.

They were the only combination to jump a clear cross county round and return home within the permitted time which elevated them to top spot by the smallest of margins.

In the end there was only a second between them and second place Sandra Auffarth (and Ganderkese) of Germany.

The two-time Olympic gold medallist, Michael Jung, finished third.

The team victory went to Germany, followed by Great Britain and Sweden with Australia finishing in fourth.

Tops-Alexander 3rd in the GCT of Monaco

Edwina Tops-Alexander has claimed her second podium finish of the 2013 Global Champions Tour season after placing third in the Monaco Grand Prix overnight.

The result has seen her shoot up the leader board to occupy third position in the overall ranking. She is now trailing second placed Christian Ahlmann by just a point and is only six points behind current leader Laura Kraut.

It was the current series champion’s first GCT Grand Prix with the 11 year old stallion Guccio and together they produced one of only three double clear rounds of the night.

First to go in the three-way jump off, Edwina’s hopes of victory were dashed when Guccio refused a green coloured vertical towards the end of the course.  A surprising refusal from the black stallion added a 4 fault score as well as three additional time faults.

“In the jump off I didn’t feel very fast and tried to make a bit more time, but he didn’t see the fence. But I am happy to be in this position. When there are only three in the ring you have to try to do the best you can. It has been an incredible show,” she said.

British rider William Funnell finished in second position after his mount Billy Congo incurred four penalties at the same fence.

There were no errors by US rider Richard Spooner and Cristallo who produced the only clear round in the jump off which handed Spooner the title at Monaco for a third time.

Australia's Amy Graham was also competnng in this event aboard her grey stallion Bella Baloubet. They were first in the ring and jumped clear and within the time but had three rails down in the second round and finished in 14th position.

The second half of the GCT season begins next weekend at the Estoril GP.

Equestrian Australia