Getting Ready for Rolex

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Rolex XC Course Designer Derek Di Grazia in his native, sunny California

It’s certainly true we can never count on the weather for anything here in Kentucky, but the fact that Rolex CCI**** cross-country course designer Derek Di Grazia made the trip over from his home in California for two full days recently to lay out the course and stake out galloping lanes surely means we must be getting closer to spring, Keeneland, the Ky Derby, and of course the Holy Grail of US Eventing – the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event.  He very kindly took some time out of his incredibly packed schedule of designing courses, teaching students, winning Horse Trials, running a barn and being a family man to talk about his vision for this year’s competition.

“We’ve definitely tried to change things a little bit this year. We’ve kept some old favourites, and then we have some new lines and some new complexes. We’ve tried to change the track of the course a little bit as well to try and make it a little bit different to what it was last year obviously, and hopefully we’ll give everyone something a bit different to look at to what they’ve seen before.” 
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One of the new jumps towards the end of the course; a massive log trakehner that Derek describes as “spectacular!”
Derek, Course Builder Mick Costello, and the crew have been hard at it these last couple of days, and I asked him exactly what he’s been doing?
“Well, Mick and his crew have got a lot of the work that we talked about last summer and fall done over the winter, and have got some of the new jumps we talked about framed up, so we’re doing heights, and just checking the positioning of the other jumps just to make sure everything flows the way I had thought, and deciding if I need to change anything at this point because at least we have 8 weeks from now until the event, so if we need to do anything we can do it. I’m just trying to get a feel of how the course is going to be, and then in another four weeks the TD comes in and checks what we’re doing, looks at the whole thing and that’s when we make any final adjustments.”
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A favourite of mine from the Alltech 2010 WEG, the massive uprooted tree trunk making a re-appearance at Rolex 2012. Also look for the mighty Mandolin from a couple of years ago, albeit in a different direction this year. Those double of corners? Same thing – still here, but perhaps in a slightly different location and jumped from a different direction?
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The Frog will apparently be back, but as decoration this year, and the Goose will not. The Head of the Lake sports a completely new complex, and I’m sworn to secrecy, but I can divulge that for anyone who remembers the beautiful carving of the Kingfisher there is a real-life version who looks exactly like that living there at the moment.  Not much solace to competitors who are craving hard facts, I’m sure, but wouldn’t you rather sleep, happy in your ignorance for a few more weeks at least anyway?! For fans of all the amazing carved animals, and who isn’t, there will be a few new ones this year, as well as a few old friends making comebacks –  look carefully and you may spot the flying trout, also from WEG, decorating a fence. 
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Derek explained to me that although this year being an Olympic year may have ramifications on the competition, it will probably not directly affect his course design, but for a couple of subtle alterations,
“I would say that obviously we’ll have more competitors because everyone always wants to try out for the Team, but at the same time the mix of riders is probably going to be a little bit relative to what it’s been in the past because being that it’s our only CCI**** in the US, we’re always going to get those first-time four star riders as well as those people who have been doing it for a while, so you do have that mix of people which always makes it a little bit interesting.”
In the steeplechase infield where there are three tracks going in different directions, in a nod to the intimate venue and expected tightly packed crowds at Greenwich, Derek said he’s moved the galloping lanes closer together to give the competitors a feel for what they can expect if they ride at London later that summer.  
Derek was last here at the Kentucky Horse Park in the autumn of 2011, and before that in July and August last year making plans and working on this year’s course; when he returns in a month it will be to put the finishing touches on the course and do a walk through with the Technical Delegate Rudiger Schwarz. After that he’ll be back in April for the competition proper. Derek tells me he’s lost count of how many times he’s walked the course, “There’s a lot of walking that goes on”, and although he say’s he hasn’t had nightmares about it, “I certainly stay up at nights thinking about it sometimes, I can guarantee you that!”
Luckily, when Derek can’t be here, the Park is in excellent hands – those of Mick Costello and his crew. Mick, a fellow California native has an easy working relationship with Derek, and of course knows the Park inside out, upside down, blindfolded, and in all weathers, which is a good thing, as Derek explains,
“You just never know what’s going to happen; you’ve had, for Kentucky, what’s been typically quite a mild winter here, and we need a little rain right now, the ground is actually quite good and MIck’s been able to get out and do some work on the footing, but you just don’t know what’s going to happen in the next month as every day is different. We can only hope that we don’t get the rains we had last year, I’m hoping that was just an off year, that was certainly something I’ve never seen!”
To wit, the first February day Derek was here the crew worked in spring-like conditions – sunshine and temperatures topping out in the 70’s; the next day we had fierce winds, hail and light snow, and temperatures hovered in the 40’s although it felt much colder. 
Derek will leave Mick with detailed instructions on how to progress with the course while he’s away,
“Every time I come we sit down and we do drawings and notes, so he has a list of things, and we also go over the things we’re going to be doing on the course so that we’re very clear about what’s going to happen.”
But as far as the footing goes, Mick is the expert. We took advantage of a sunny, albeit breezy day a few days earlier for him to explain the mighty Verti-Drain to me! 
and let’s see it in action…..
Mick is lucky to have the Verti-Drain, an aggravator, and an aerovator all at his disposal, and explained the difference to me.
“The Verti-Drain goes in and back and shatters the ground, the aggravator is on a cam that the tines go in six inches on a circle very fast and shatter the ground – the aggravator likes it a little drier, and the aerovator does the same thing as the aggravator but only goes in three and a half inches, and I use it mostly for seeding.”
Mick seeds the track with three varieties of turf type fescue and one bluegrass – the same formula that was used for the WEG. 
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It took some tweaking on Mick’s part to get the Verti-Drain going just right, and he also tells me his chiropractor gave up on him a long time ago, as he does spend a lot of time looking behind him, and always over his right shoulder, “He said I have a spiral in my neck!” We have a huge amount to be grateful for to Mick and his crew, and to Derek, who all work long hours in all sorts of weather. Thank you also to all the volunteers who come out a week before the event to dress the fences, and decorate them with all the beautiful flowers, another enormous task in sometimes unforgiving conditions.  It won’t be long at all now until Rolex is upon us, and and I’m sure there are many competitors staying up late at night pondering the course just as Derek is too! My thanks again to Derek and Mick for their time, my thanks to you for reading, and looking forward to seeing you at Rolex in two short months – Go Kentucky! 
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