British Dressage has disqualified the winner of the Dodson & Horrell Novice Restricted Class at last month’s Espayo National Championships. Elenna Carroll, riding Gemma Appleton’s Moviman, has subsequently been found to be ineligible to ride at restricted novice level. This now promotes Denise Kersley’s Tiger Tim and rider Alysia Matravers to champions.
Elenna has dual British and Australian nationality and prior to 2011 lived and competed in Australia, which means she should have been given Group 3 rider status on initial registration. However, BD was unaware of her background so she was given Group 8 status which is the standard procedure for new British applicants. We have received evidence of her competition history in Australia to enable us to downgrade this to Group 6 but this still makes her ineligible for Novice restricted.
Paul Graham, BD Sport Manager commented; “While it is unfortunate to have to take this action, Elenna has been open with us and helpful in investigating the situation. I do believe that it was a genuine mistake and Elenna’s honesty and integrity was not at question.”