King Holds Twice The Lead at Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, Presented by Bridgestone
Apr 30th, 11
Mary King of Great Britain, an international competitor for almost 30 years, is in control of the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by Bridgestone. After the day’s cross-country competition, she’s holding first place on Queen’s Temptress (47.7) and second place on Fernhill Urco (49.7).
“I can’t believe it—lying in first and second places! I’ve never been in this position before, especially not at this level, on two very different horses,” said King, 49. “I’m going to celebrate tonight, because you never know what’s around the corner.”
Clayton Fredericks of Australia, the 2007 Rolex Kentucky winner, is King’s closest pursuer, in third with 53.0 penalties on Be My Guest. Queen’s Temptress will have to lower two fences in Sunday’s show jumping for Fredericks to win his second Rolex watch.
Sinead Halpin, of Gladstone, N.J., is just a nose behind in fourth on Manoir De Carneville (53.1), followed closely by Hannah Sue Burnett of The Plains, Va., on St. Barths (53.3). William Fox-Pitt, the 2010 Rolex Kentucky winner, is sixth (54.0).
King earned her comfortable lead by guiding King’s Temptress to a completely faultless round, as the third pair on course, at 10:10 this morning. The speedy round moved the 11-year-old mare, whom King bred, into the lead from fourth place. Fernhill Urco, the third-last horse to start, at 2:50 this afternoon, jumped perfectly, but, as King had predicted, he finished 20 seconds slow—still fast enough to hold on to the second place he earned in dressage.
Be My Guest, 13, jumped beautifully and finished seven seconds slow, to vault seven places. “She’s a pretty good cross-country mare, if I can keep her quiet. She was fantastic today—I really enjoyed it,” said Fredericks, 43.
This was the first time Halpin, 29, and Manoir De Carneville, 11, have ever tackled a four-star cross-country course, and they finished 11 seconds slow. Halpin said she approached the challenge with confidence.
“I was kind of excited when I first walked the course, because I thought it would be perfect for him,” said Halpin. “I watched Mary [King] go, and then I didn’t want to watch any more. I sat in my car and tried not to think about it, but the announcing here is really good and I had to hear what was going on.”
Burnett, 24, had ridden once before at Rolex Kentucky, but this was the first four-star start for St. Barths, 11. Course officials stopped her about halfway through the course, because the rider in front of her had fallen. She was held for about five minutes and then galloped home comfortably inside the optimum time of 11:10.
“I took [the hold] as a nice break and then just picked it back up. I liked [having the break]—the first time I did [Rolex Kentucky] it was exhausting!” she said.
Of the 41 horses who started on course, 18 horses jumped faultlessly, but only three finished without time faults (Queen’s Temptress, St. Barths and Jessica Phoenix of Canada on Exponential). Exponential’s speedy trip moved the pair up from 30th to eighth. Eight horses were eliminated for falls, and three riders retired after refusals.
One of the fallers was dressage leader Tiana Coudray of Ojai, Calif. She and Ringwood Magister toppled at fence 24A, after two refusals earlier in the course. “I don’t think our fall had a lot do with that fence,” said a disappointed Coudray. “But he had a peek at the ditch and brush before it, and we got messed up. So I picked and added [a stride] to the table and got him to an impossible distance, and he couldn’t make it.”
Kristi Nunnink of Auburn, Calif., was the only rider injured today. She and R-Star fell at fence 15A, the Double Corners, and Nunnink injured her right arm. She was transported to the University of Kentucky Medical Center for further examination.
Derek di Grazia, who designed the Rolex Kentucky cross-country course for the first time, was visibly relieved at the end of the day. “I’m so glad we’re here today, because when I got here last Sunday, there was so much water on the course,” he said. “I thought to myself, ‘How are we going to pull this off?’”
The storm on Wednesday night didn’t decrease his anxiety. “I wanted to cry on Thursday morning, but it was amazing how well the ground dried out and the job the crew did.”
The riders, in turn, praised di Grazia’s course and he job his course-building crew did in the face of record rains. “The ground was amazing. If this had been a horse trial in England, it would have been cancelled days ago!” said King.
Fredericks noted that riders incurred faults at many of di Grazia’s jumps, although nine horses ran out at fence 13 B, the Hollow, the course’s most influential jump. “Hats off to Derek,” said Fredericks.
Saturday’s attendance was 29,864. On Friday, 10,962 watched dressage, while 6,817 watched dressage on Thursday.
The Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event is part of the HSBC FEI ClassicsTM and features the world’s best horses and riders vying for their share of $250,000 in prize money as well as a shot at the $350,000 Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing, which is awarded to any rider who wins the Rolex Kentucky, Mitsubishi Motors Badminton and Land Rover Burghley four-star events in succession.
With a refusal at fence 26 today on Grass Valley, Mark Todd of New Zealand, winner last week at Badminton, lost his chance to win the Grand Slam this year.
Further information on the 2011 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by Bridgestone, is available at the Rolex Kentucky website (www.rk3de.org). For the Ariat Kentucky Reining Cup visit www.KentuckyReining.com.
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