Equestrian: Goodin's ride has a royal connection

By EUGENE BINGHAM

Under the gaze of his Norwegian princess, Bruce Goodin landed in the Olympic showjumping final yesterday with a chance of bagging an equestrian medal of a different kind for New Zealand.

The 31-year-old will ride for gold on Sunday on a horse named Lenaro that is half-owned by Norway's Princess Martha Louise and former test cricketer Shane Thomson.

The intriguing ownership arrangement is all part of the mystery of a man who is stealing the limelight from three-day eventing, the sport most New Zealanders usually associate with equestrian.

"Eventing still does dominate the sport in New Zealand ... but maybe we are at last getting a much more rounded equestrian team," Goodin said yesterday.

If showjumping does grow, it will be in no small part due to the performance of Goodin and Lenaro.

After leading the classy field following a clear round on Monday, they slipped to 20th yesterday, but it was still enough to make the final.

On Sunday, all riders will start from scratch. The 45 qualifiers will jump a first round, with the top 25 going on for gold.

Princess Martha Louise will be watching from the stands with intense interest.

Goodin, who was born in Huntly but has been based in Europe for almost a decade, became the princess' equestrian trainer two years ago. They have been romantically linked, but Goodin refuses to discuss it.

Last year, he found her Lenaro, a top 10-year-old Holstein gelding. She bought him with the aim of qualifying for the Olympics but when no Norwegian riders did, she offered the horse to Goodin.

To satisfy international ownership requirements, Goodin's friend Thomson became Lenaro's half-owner.

(The horse of New Zealand's other showjumper, Peter Breakwell, also has an interesting international owner. Leonson is owned by Nancy Clark, wife of Jim, the found of Internet company Netscape.)

Goodin said he and Lenaro clicked straight away.

"Even before I started riding him in competition, when I was training him for the Princess, he always seemed to go really well for me. He has a fantastic brain and tries really hard."

Goodin competed at the Barcelona Olympics but performed poorly and swore to himself he wanted to have another attempt with a better horse. Lenaro was the answer to his prayers.

He will approach Sunday's final as calmly as possible.

"We can start off from fresh and I'll just try not to think about what the results can be, just what we have to do to get the results."

Goodin has been encouraged by support from New Zealand and hopes he can do his country proud. He would love nothing better than to win a medal, if only to raise the profile of the sport.

"We're certainly not up there with eventing on the world scene yet, but we're certainly not heading to Games and disgracing ourselves."

Eventing is an all-round test of a horse with dressage, cross-country and show-jumping phases. The individual showjumping competition is more specialised. The jumps are wider and higher than those for eventing riders and the courses more technically demanding.

Breakwell bowed out of the competition yesterday after a disappointing round, but was philosophical about his 55th placing.

"It's disappointing not to make the final but I knew I had an inexperienced horse," he said.

"Either he was going to falter or really rise to the occasion and maybe he wasn't quite ready."