KEY POINTS:
Mark Todd faces the most important hurdle in his quest for an Olympic return when he competes in the Puhinui Horse Trials at Manukau City starting tomorrow.
The eventing legend stunned the sport seven weeks ago when announcing his return and a desire to qualify for the Beijing Games in August.
He has since produced some encouraging form on mount Gandalf in relatively minor shows but faces his litmus test in the international-class three-star event which finishes on Sunday.
While victory would be a major boost, the 51-year-old's main target will be attaining Olympic qualifying standards according to Eventing New Zealand (ENZ) high performance director Blyth Tait.
"Mark's going into Puhinui with an eye very much on gaining his first step in the qualification and not necessarily winning," Tait said.
"If it all goes well then I think he's in with a chance but I think he'll probably need to play a little bit safe. He doesn't want to run the risk of making a silly mistake that's going to prevent him going on to the next stage."
That next step is Europe where double Olympic champion Todd may still head if he fails at Puhinui but would need to seek out another event to cram into a packed schedule.
Qualifying entails a score of at least 50 per cent in Friday's dressage, no more than 20 penalty points in Saturday's cross country and no more than 20 penalties in Sunday's showjumping.
Gandalf achieved all three criteria easily last year when finishing second at Puhinui, ridden by former owner Angela Lloyd.
The cross-country holds the most pitfalls. One refusal is worth 20 penalty points on its own and any fall would see Todd fail qualification.
"It's not hard for a person of Mark's ability and the horse has achieved this level before," Tait said.
"But horses are horses and it only needs to pour with rain on the day and the horse will slip with take-off over a fence.
"All going well he should do it easily. If he doesn't do it easily then he has a lot of ground to make up in regards to attracting the selectors' attention.
"He has to perform with distinction. He has done so far, he's on an upward curve."
Todd and 10-year-old grey gelding Gandalf won an eventing challenge at the Horse of the Year Show in Hastings last week to follow quality outings at Arran Station in Hawke's Bay and Rotorua.
"He's very happy at this stage," said Tait, a former Olympic and world champion.
"Clearly he hasn't had the horse for very long and he's under quite a bit of pressure because the time frame's not that long."
Todd's Europe campaign would require a qualifying performance in Europe at a CCI long format event, either at the Saumur horse trials in France in May or at Bramham in England a month later.
Competing in Europe at the same time will be most or all of the eight riders shortlisted by ENZ before Todd announced his comeback.
Those riders are British-based Andrew Nicholson, Caroline Powell, Joe Meyer and Annabel Wigley, along with New Zealand-based foursome Matthew Grayling (Taranaki), Bryce Newman (Bulls), Emily Butcher (Christchurch) and Heelan Tompkins (Taranaki).
All are chasing quality performances before the five-strong New Zealand Olympic eventing team are named in late June.
Todd, who won gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and repeated the dose at Seoul four years later, is chasing a berth at his sixth Olympic Games.
He retired after the Sydney Olympics eight years ago.
- NZPA
