Day 1 Story
Day 1 Story
Apr 24th, 09
Lexington, KY – It was a hat trick for Europe at the first day of the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event. The Netherlands’ Tim Lips and his 1996 Dutch warmblood gelding Concrex Oncarlos came away with the top score of 42.0 penalty points. Currently following Lips are Great Britain’s Oliver Townend and Carousel Quest with 45.2 penalty points and Great Britain’s William Fox-Pitt and Navigator with 46.7 penalty points.
“I knew that if Oncarlos was relaxed he could do a really good job,” said Lips. “I trained all winter with Anky van Grunsven, and we’ve been training with her for one year. It’s nice to do lessons every week; it can make a dressage test like that in an arena like this.” “It’s great to be on the top rather than in the end. I’m really happy to be in the lead at the moment.”
Competitors at this year’s event noticed many of the improvements to the Kentucky Horse Park in anticipation of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games including the new stadium that only officially opened yesterday. Lips commented that this was his first time in America, and that Holland did not have a facility like the Horse Park, but he certainly wishes they did.
“I just think that the whole place is spectacular,” said Townend. “It looks fantastic. I think next year it’s going to be absolutely phenomenal to be here. That stadium is a massive atmosphere. When we do get every seat full it’s going to be seriously daunting for horses and riders. It’s going to really resemble a championship atmosphere if not more.”
Rolex fans could not have asked for a more beautiful Kentucky day to kick off the 2009 event. The sun and lack of wind may have contributed to the fact that the day was relatively uneventful. Interestingly enough the only thing that seemed to cause problems was the rein-back at ‘L’. A few horses protested and let it be known that they’d prefer to go forward (and sometimes up) and not back.
Townend is also a first timer to this event and joked that he hopes to be a part of the final press conference as well. “It’s a great start, but I think we all prefer to do the press conference on Sunday night.”
Fox-Pitt seemed genuinely surprised and thrilled to be third after today’s dressage but doesn’t underestimate his competition. “We’ve got some very good horses coming tomorrow so perhaps the judges are saving a few of those ‘9’s and ‘10’s for tomorrow.”
The highest placed American is Jolie Sexson in fourth place on her Killian O’Connor with a penalty score of 47.3. Tomorrow’s competition starts at 10:00 a.m. with Sara Dierks and Somerset and will include the remaining 26 of 50 competitors.
This year’s judging panel includes judges David Lee (IRL), president at C; Marilyn Payne (USA) at M; and Nicoli Fife (NZL) at E.