Fellow World Games team members Jessica Phoenix and Rebecca Howard, finished in the top 10 at the rain soaked 2011 edition of the CCI 4* Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event, held April 28–May 1, at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY, USA.
Phoenix, of Cannington, ON, sat in 30th place following dressage with a score of 60.0 riding her 2010 World Equestrian Games (WEG) mount, the Canadian bred 13-year-old Thoroughbred gelding Exponential. The pair were one of three combinations to complete Derek Di Grazia’s cross country course with no jumping or time penalties which moved them up the leaderboard into eighth place. Phoenix’s success continued as she and Exponential also had a fault free jumping round to finish on their dressage score for seventh place overall, only one of two riders out of the 45 member starting field to do so. In addition to her seventh place finish, Phoenix was also awarded The Bank One Perpetual Trophy, awarded to the highest-placed rider who is also the sole owner of the horse.
“Exponential was incredible. I could not have imagined him jumping any better on cross country or show jumping,” said Phoenix. “The footing was very challenging on Saturday, but he is such an efficient galloping horse that he didn’t seem to notice. I am so thankful to have such an amazing partner in Exponential.”
Howard, of Salmon Arm, BC, partnered with Riddle Master, the 10-year-old Canadian Sport Horse gelding owned by Caroline Bazley, and her 2010 World Equestrian Games mount started the competition on a dressage score of 51.7 penalties which was good for 16th place. Adding only 12.8 time penalties on the cross country course moved them up to 11th spot heading in to the show jumping. They finished in 10th place overall after incurring four jumping faults for a final score of 68.5 overall.
“Riddle Master was super this week end. I learned a lot as it was a different experience riding in the wet conditions. I am so excited about what is to come with this horse,” said Howard.
Jessica Hampf, originally of London, ON, and High Society III, 15-year-old Australian Thoroughbred gelding owned by the rider and Carl Hampf, were in 25th spot following dressage with 58.5. The pair added 20 jumping and 21.6 time penalties on cross country and 12 jumping penalties to finish in 24th place with a score of 112.1.
Rounding out the Canadian entries was Peter Barry of Dunham, QC and Kilrodan Abbott, his own and Susan Barry’s 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding. Competing their first Rolex, Barry and Kilrodan Abbott were 35th following dressage and added 20 jumping and 29.6 time penalties on cross country. They had one rail, for four faults, in the jumping round to finish in 25th with 117.1.
Mary King of Great Britain claimed first and second at the 2011 Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event. Riding Kings Temptress, King won with a score of 47.7, and earned second place with Fernhill Urco with 49.7. American Sinead Halpin finished in third place with Manoir De Carneville, scoring 53.1.
Full results are available on the official Rolex Kentucky Event web site www.rk3de.org.
Canada was also well represented at the CCI 4* Badminton Horse Trials held April 21–25 in Great Britain. Hawley Bennett-Awad of Langley, BC, and her WEG team silver medal mount, Gin & Juice, an 11-year-old Thoroughbred mare owned by Bennett-Awad & Linda Paine, were the top placed Canadian entries, finishing 41st out of 84 starters with a score of 81.8. Selena O’Hanlon of Elgin, ON, also rode her sliver medal WEG horse Colombo, a 16-year-old Swedish Warmblood gelding owned by Elaine and Michael Davies, to a 55th place finish.
Olympic double gold medalist Mark Todd of New Zealand won CCI 4* Badminton riding NZB Land Vision with a final score of 43.6. Piggy French of Great Britain finished second with 45.2 riding Jakata. Rolex winner, Mary King earned third place at Badminton, scoring 45.8, with Imperial Cavalier. Complete results for CCI 4* Badminton can be found at www.badminton-horse.co.uk.
The CCI 4* Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event and CCI 4* Badminton Horse Trials are part of the HSBC FEI Classics™ is a series first introduced in 2008 uniting the top end international Eventing circuit—namely the five 4–star eventing competitions currently held in the world. The riders gain points at each event and the rider at the end of the season with the highest number of points is the HSBC FEI Classics™ Champion.
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