Michael Jung and fischerRocana win again
The final day of Rolex Kentucky started early as over 2,500 fans watched the second horse inspection at Kentucky Horse Park.
The Ground Jury, consisting of Ernst Topp of Germany, Sandy Phillips of Great Britain and Andrew Bennie of New Zealand accepted 54 of the 55 horses presented to continue to the show jumping phase this afternoon. Following the rigours of cross country day one horse, Courage Under Fire (Katherine Coleman) was not presented to the Ground Jury, three horses were held but accepted on re-inspection in Shamwari 4 (Boyd Martin), Madison Park (Kyle Carter of Canada) and HHS Cooley (Elisabeth Halliday-Sharp) but unfortunately Never Outfoxed, ridden by Holly Payne Caravella, who had been standing in 19th place was not accepted and their competition was over
Lauren Kieffer and Veronica
It wasn’t a huge surprise when Michael Jung became the second rider to win the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event on the same horse in two consecutive years by riding Fischerrocana FST to a 13.3-point victory. His winning score (39.2) easily beat the rest of the field with Lauren Kieffer on Veronica (52.5) and Maya Black on Doesn't Play Fair (53.9).
Michael was modest in his victory saying "I am normally not a man of many words or so much drama as this weekend has been. I have to thank all the people behind me and my horses. It's a success of the whole team. Every horse in my stable horse has had a part in it."
Phillip Dutton finished fourth on Mighty Nice
The USA’s Lauren Kieffer climbed from sixth place to second place by adding just one time fault to her score. That propelled her up the standings when the four horses in front of her faulted, including Phillip Dutton's third-placed horse, Mighty Nice, and his second-placed horse, Fernhill Fugitive. Dutton finished fourth on Mighty Nice, fifth on Fernhill Cubalawn and 13th on Fernhill Fugitive.
The second place for Lauren Keiffer made her the winner of the Rolex USEF Four-Star Championship for the second time, again on Veronica and she also finished 18th on Landmark's Monte Carlo, with 20 show jumping faults.
"Monte Carlo exceeded our expectations yesterday and had a learning experience today. But Veronica is better the more atmosphere she has. It lights her up a bit, and she tries harder."
Maya Black and Doesn't Play Fair
28 year old Maya Black and Doesn't Play Fair, an 11-year-old Holsteiner, lowered one jump to move up one place from their two-phase standing. "He's kind of a pain in the barn, but he's a great little horse who comes to work every day," said Maya of her 15.2-hand partner.
All eyes now turn to the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials where Michael Jung will be competing on La Biosthetique Sam. Today Michael not only pocketed a Rolex watch and a first prize of $110,000 but also put himself into the box seat to be only second winner of the Rolex Grand Slam
Roll on Badminton ..........
Watch Michael Jung's show jumping round here
