View our Thursday photo gallery here
"Today she's the leader but tomorrow we will see"
It probably comes as no surprise that Michael Jung riding FischerRocana FST tops the leader board at Rolex Kentucky after the first day of dressage. The 10th combination into the wide open Kentucky Horse Park arena on a sunny but chilly morning, Michael and his mare that won team silver at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy produced a strong test to score the only sub-40 of the day with a 39.3, just a tiny bit lower than their Normandy score of 40.7. The three judges, Wayne Quarles (USA), Angela Tucker (GBR) and Ernst Topp (GER) were unanimous in rewarding the forward, flowing work of FischerRocana which was, in Michael’s words, ‘calm and quiet’ to produce ‘one of her best tests’
Currently in second place, Laine Ashker of the USA also had an early ride on her 16hh off the track thoroughbred Anthony Patch to produce a test that drew the biggest applause from the fairly small crowd in the arena at that time. This is their fifth time together at Rolex Kentucky with their best result so far being eighth in 2010 and Laine is known for her strength in this phase, as she also competes at FEI level in pure dressage. “It all came together today” said Laine in her first ever Rolex press conference and she was naturally delighted to find herself there
"Finally I've made it into a press conference!"
Her coach Buck Davidson Jnr. probably didn’t have quite the start he was hoping for with an equal 14th on Petite Flower and 16th on The Apprentice (poor Buck has a lot to live up to with the statue of his famous father close to the arena here) and Phillip Dutton too was a little disappointed with his tests although his first ride, Fernhill Fugitive is currently in third place on 47.3 while his second horse, Fernhill Cubalawn is in seventh place on 50.9.
Phillip Dutton and Fernhill Cubalawn
Disappointment seemed to be the theme of the day with British rider Francis Whittington thinking that his lovely grey ‘Smokey’ aka Easy Target was a little overdone by the time he got to the arena. Currently in fourth place on a score of 47.6, this may not seem too bad a position to be in but Francis knows that the horse can do much better and that there are some strong competitors coming up tomorrow who are certainly capable of producing more sub-40 scores
Another Brit in the top ten is the lovely Nicola Wilson (who never seems disappointed!) in eighth place on Watermill Vision, having his first 4* start and Pippa Roome of Horse & Hound caught up with her afterwards
American riders make up the rest of the top 10 with Jolie Wentworth riding Goodknight in fifth place, Elisa Wallace riding Simply Priceless in sixth, Will Coleman riding OBOS Cooley (by Obos Quality – the same sire as Kevin McNab’s Fernhill Quality Street) in ninth and Barbara Crabo in 10th on EverReady
Canada had some good news yesterday as they were elevated into sixth place at the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games following the disqualification of Maxime Livio and this must spur them on towards Rio now. Canada’s Selena O’Hanlon is currently in 12th place with a few problems in the changes costing them marks and New Zealand’s Emily Cammock is in 13th on Dambala (below)
On her Facebook page Emily says that it was “Really disappointing that we had a couple of stupid miscommunications at the start of the test that cost us dearly, but after the second movement I don't think he could have really done much better”
Emily Cammock's mother Viv, was arena-side and feeling a little nervous!
Tomorrow sees Australia’s Bill Levett and Kate Chadderton in the arena; Bill and his team are settling in well on their first visit to Kentucky and enjoying themselves
“We’re having a fantastic time and venue is amazing” he tells us “Both in the excellent facilities and also the sense of looking after competitors - we always say to our staff that we are in the entertainment business and this event is the epitome of it both for owners, riders’ families, grooms, sponsors and the viewing public”
Bill has had a chance to walk the course for the first time at Kentucky and says “I think the course is a true but fair four star test I don't have anything to compare it to; however the fences are four star dimensions and I think the time will be tough to get as you do not have a let up all the way around. They have been very clever with the positioning of fences and it is also very undulating”
We have our Libby Law cross country course walk with every fence coming up soon and you can hear what Derek Di Grazia and Jim Wofford think of the major challenges on this course in the video here
But first we have to finish the dressage phase and tomorrow brings some great combinations into the arena ................
Zara Phillips returns to the stable after schooling High Kingdom. They are the first combination in the arena after lunch on Friday - a surefire way to get the punters back in their seats!
