L-R Michael Jung, Liz Halliday-Sharp and Phillip Dutton at the press conference
Michael Jung is on his way to another 4* win, having taken an strong lead at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event riding Fischerrocana FST with a dressage score of 34.4 penalties.
This gives him a lead of almost ten penalties currently over the USA’s Elisabeth Halliday-Sharp riding Fernhill By Night in second place on 43.0 and 2008 Rolex Kentucky champion Phillip Dutton on Fernhill Fugitive in third place 43.1 with another day of dressage yet to come
Not surprisingly, Michael was very happy with the 11 year old mare that won here last year
“She was very concentrated. She travelled very well to Kentucky and was very nice to ride on the last few days, so I expected her to perform well”
Michael and fischerRocana FST impress the judges
At Kentucky last year the pair added nothing to their dressage score of 39.3 so the rest of the field cannot really afford to give Michael such a big lead but anything can happen on the cross country, as Michael discovered when fischerRocana fell in the water at Burghley last year
This year’s course at Kentucky includes four water jumps and the weather forecast is predicting some typically unsettled stormy weather. Michael says that the course looks trickier than last year with more hills being introduced and more loops but that fischerRocana really enjoys competing here
“We’ll see how the weather is, how the horse feels, can we go really fast or do we have to go more slowly in some places. In the end, the horse makes the plan and you follow it”
Liz Halliday-Sharp and Fernhill by Night
Michael and Fischerrocana scored five points better than last year but he wasn’t the only one with the second placed Liz Halliday-Sharp also improving on last year’s score by more than five points. Liz led at the lunch break and said that she was pleased with the relaxation and obedience that Fernhill By Night aka Blacky 13-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding, showed. “Blacky is like a big, black Labrador,” said Liz who is based at Chailey Stud in the UK and returns to the USA during the winter season. “I got the warm-up right today, and he really worked with me. He really, really tried.”
Phillip Dutton was the first into the arena on Fernhill Fugitive and is also in seventh place on Fernhill Cubalawn
“It’s not always great going first—you never know what kind of score you’re going to get. So I was pleased with the way he went. It was probably his best four-star score yet,” said Dutton. “He’s really matured. He’s come together and is maturing, and he’s a good-natured horse.”
Phillip Dutton and Fernhill Fugitive
Another ex-Aussie Boyd Martin is currently in fourth place on Shamwari 4 (44.6), the horse that gained seventh place for Boyd in Normandy while Maya Black on Doesn’t Play Fair is in fifth (45.5) and Jock Paget on Clifton Signature is sixth on 47.5
Another New Zealander, last year’s runner up Tim Price is currently in equal eighth place riding Bango on a score of 48.3 and Australia’s Ryan Wood is currently in 23rd on Fernhill Classic and 28th on Frankie
You can view the top five tests below thanks to USEF
