After a demanding day on the wet cross country course at Kentucky Horse Park, the big question was, who would have enough fuel in the tank to rise to the occasion on the final day of show jumping?
The day began as always with the final horse inspection and the early casualties were Phillip Dutton’s Mighty Nice in seventh place and Francis Whittington’s Easy Target in 16th place while Emily Cammock’s Dambala and Will Faudree’s Andromaque had been withdrawn the previous evening. Very sad news came from Emily during the day that she had made the heart-breaking decision to euthanize Dambala who had sustained significant damage to his suspensory ligament during the cross country.
“He was the most honest, willing and trusting horse that always gave 150 percent,” she said in a statement. “I feel honoured that he put his trust in me and together we made a pretty awesome team.”
Richard Jeffery certainly knows his way around this arena - this is his 18th year of designing the show jumping course
Dana Widstrand withdrew Relentless Pursuit during the second horse inspection so it was 41 combinations that were to go head-to-head over Richard Jeffery's show jumping course inside the Rolex Stadium which thankfully was bathed in sunshine despite the forecast showers. Richard is also the course designer at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials and last year during the media course walk he talked about the differences between designing at Burghley and Kentucky – one of the main differences obviously being the purpose built arena at Kentucky Horse Park which provides a fantastic surface for the final day, regardless of weather conditions.
As always Richard produced a clever course consisting of 13 obstacles and 16 jumping efforts that required the horses to be capable of riding shorter distances in the first half then moving up to longer distances in the second half of the course. There was a massive first fence, a tricky fence heading away from the horse entrance to the arena which caught many out, the demanding Rolex triple, lots of related distances and a tight time; all this led to only one double clear round in the first half of the draw from Lillian Heard riding Share Option although Laine Ashker riding Anthony Patch came close with only one time penalty. People in the packed stands and marquees around the famous arena where Michael Jung enjoyed his last US victory were enjoying the sunshine and the tension rose as the arena was harrowed for last 20 riders.
In fact there were 21 riders as Cody Sturgess’ horse, that should have jumped in the first half, had lost a shoe and needed some attention; their round was one that saw plenty of rails falling, which may well have been due to the shoe problem but the next rider, Ireland’s Austin O’Connor riding Balham Houdini showed that the bar had been raised (not literally) with a very good double clear round and a delighted response from Austin.
Colleen Rutledge on Shiraz, the horse that has completed all 4* in the Northern Hemisphere (come on down to Adelaide Colleen and do the lot!) couldn’t match that with two down but her compatriots Phillip Dutton on Fernhill Fugitive and Buck Davidson on the mare his father bred, Petite Flower both came up trumps, although Phillip was very lucky through the triple.
As he had two horses in the top three, Michael Jung and FischerRocana FST, then in third place jumped out of order at this point and produced a beautiful clear round that made the course and the time look easy. Although Michael still had to jump La Biosthetique Sam, he was already piling the pressure on Tim Price.
Bill Levett and Improvise
Britain’s Nicola Wilson always has a smile on her face but she really had a grin when coming out the arena with a clear round on Annie Clover. This mare had problems in the show jumping at her first 4* start in Normandy but today there was no hint of pressure to clear the jumps or make the time and Nicola must be thrilled with her up and coming horse that finished in eighth place overall.
Boyd Martin and Master Frisky, a horse at his first 4* start, had two elements down in the triple and Australia’s Bill Levett also had two down in this combination and the third last fence to drop Bill and Improvise down to 10th place. No doubt a disappointing round for Bill when Improvise jumped so well at Burghley but a top ten finish still makes the journey worthwhile and Improvise certainly showed his strength on cross country day
Phillip Dutton produced not just one clear round but two with another clear on Fernhill Cubalawn (above), a horse he has been riding for less than a year to finish the best American rider and win the Rolex/USEF CCI4* Eventing National Championship title. Both of Phillip’s horses were having their first 4* start here, making it even more impressive
Then it was downto the last three. William Fox-Pitt’s Bay My Hero (above) looked stunning as they trotted in and William appeared to have none of the nerves he admitted to last year. Another super clear round from the defending champions meant they were guaranteed at least fourth place. Expectations were high for a clear round by Michael Jung and La Biosthetique Sam but it was not to be; the third part of the triple and the fence away from the gate also proved their undoing and left them on a score of 44.7.
Although this eased the pressure on Tim Price slightly in terms of time faults he still did not have a pole in hand over Michael and FischerRocana FST following their earlier clear round. Sadly it was just one rail –one of the fences away from the gate - that cost Tim the 4* win and quite a lot of prize money. However he is set to return next year, probably with one of his young horses, and the next big focus for him, as many others (including us!) is the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials.
“You just have to put everything to one side and focus,” said Tim of the pressure as the last to jump
Michael Jung of course isn’t heading to Badminton but will no doubt be celebrating yet another convincing win as he heads home to Germany. He has been to Kentucky only twice and both times has returned a champion, once with a gold medal and once with a CCI4* victory which is an impressive feat
Complimenting his winning horse Michael said "She is very correct. She knows what she has to do in each phase. Every competition is easy with her and that is very special" – the same could be said of the rider
Watch the full show jumping rounds of each competitor here
