Saturday 28^th September 2024

Rain dampens day 4 of the action and leads to an early wrap up

Whilst the weekend’s remaining Australian Campdraft Championship events were cancelled due to wet weather, Friday’s scheduled program went ahead as planned – with an extra event squeezed in during the afternoon session, to ensure as many runs as possible were completed.

The sun made an appearance on Friday morning in time for the second section of the ACC Whitehaven Coal Open Campdraft, where Andrew Turvey from Juandah, Queensland, claimed victory aboard PLAYGIRL after an exciting run-off with Tim McCarthy on TNL HOT LAP.

Both riders were scored an impressive 92 in the first round and a 90 in the final – and it came down to just one point between camp scores in the decider, with Andrew’s 22 points securing the overall win.

The grit and determination of our lady riders was evident as the Kent Saddlery Ladies event commenced while the rain was setting in, with an excellent display of Campdrafting for spectators who stuck it out in the wet weather! Congratulations to Lyn Kelly-Hofman and SPY – a consistent combination who were first out in the final, adding an 87 to their first-round score of 89 to secure the win with a 176.

With the committee fearing the rainfall would be more prolonged than predicted, it was decided that the Prydes EasiFeed Open For Open competitors would brave the rain on Friday afternoon while the arena remained in good condition.

What a great decision this proved to be, with a thrilling show of horsemanship from some of ABCRA’s most talented combinations. With not enough daylight remaining to run a final, it was a one-round contest and Manilla’s Al Sullivan on JANGO were certainly up to the task. A fantastic 92 point round secured the win ahead of two combinations on 91 – Adam Sadler on SWIFT SPIN and Johnathon McDonald on MCDONALDS MISS SCARLETT.

Thank you to Friday’s judges Brent Smyth, Adam Pollock and Todd Hammond who did a fantastic job with the upmost professionalism despite the conditions.

With the rain falling consistently on Friday night during the National Finals presentations, the sun came out again on Saturday morning – but the water logging damage had already been done. After a careful inspection of the arena surface at 7:30am, the difficult decision was made to cancel the remaining Australian Campdraft Championship events with the safety of riders, horses and cattle front of mind.

The ABCRA would like to sincerely thank all sponsors, cattle donors, the North Star Charity Campdraft Committee and local community, staff, volunteers, exhibitors, competitors and spectators for their support of the 2024 National Finals Campdraft event. Despite the early and unplanned conclusion, there were 4 days of fantastic Campdrafting which were wholly enjoyed by all.

Live results can be found on the free scoring app “And The Winner Is…”, with livestream rewatches, daily reports and further information available at www.abcra.com.au.