Equestrian: Tait puts quartet into quarantine

Olympic champion Blyth Tait is keeping his Sydney riding options wide open, having put four horses into quarantine in England last night.

His 1996 gold medal mount, Ready Teddy, and Chesterfield, which was in the bronze medal-winning three-day event team at the Atlanta Games, were named in the New Zealand Olympic eventing team in June.

Eventing New Zealand high performance manager Sarah Herrick said that Tait would also put Welton Envoy, winner of this year's Kentucky three-day event, and Aspyring, runner-up in Kentucky last year, into quarantine.

The other England-based New Zealand riders, Mark Todd and Andrew Nicholson, would have three horses in quarantine and Paul O'Brien would have one, Enzed.

Todd is adding Just A Mission, eighth in the Kentucky event in May, to his official selections of Diamond Hall Red and Eyespy. Nicholson is adding one of his stable's rising stars, Climb the Heights, alongside New York and Dawdle.

Herrick said the horses named with the riders when the team were selected would not necessarily go to Sydney. A final decision would be made near completion of the quarantine.

The horses would be in quarantine until flying to Sydney around August 20.

- NZPA

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