Mary King Chases Tiana Coudray into the Cross-Country

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Mary King and Fernhill Urco

With a young talented rider topping the Rolex leader board in her second 4* and three British horses in the top 6, Rolex almost has the feel of Badminton a week ago.  Mary King had a wonderful ride this afternoon aboard her own magnificent gray horse–Fernhill Urco.  She moved into 2nd place, just 0.9 points behind Tiana Coudray and Ringwood Magister.  Mary’s other horse, King’s Temptress is in in 4th with 47.7.  We knew that the British based riders meant business, but Mary’s performance in the dressage to put two horses in the top four is Rolex greatness.

Rolex Dressage Results:

1. Tiana Coudray and Ringwood Magister  40.8
2. Mary King and Fernhill Urco  41.7
3. Allison Springer and Arthur  42.3
4. Mary King and King’s Temptress  47.7
5T. Will Coleman and Twizzel  48.2
5T. James Alliston and Jumbo’s Jake  48.2
7. Kim Severson and Tipperary Liadhnan  48.5
8. Sinead Halpin and Manoir de Carnevile 48.7
9. Boyd Martin and Remington  49.0
10. Clayton Fredericks and Be My Guest  50.2

[Full Scores]

James Alliston and Jumbo’s Jake had a very good ride to jump into a tie for 5th with Will Coleman and Twizzel.  I haven’t seen James ride much and his test didn’t stop your breath and make you say ‘wow’ but James rode very accurately, Jumbo’s Jake was moving nicely, and they kept getting good score after good score.  India McEvoy own’s Jumbo’s Jake and is letting James ride him while she is in vet school.

–Sinead Halpin and Manoir De Carneville were the fourth best scorers on Friday with a 48.7.    I really admire Sinead for her competitiveness and she looked like one of the most focused riders here.

–As I already mentioned, there are 3 British pairs in the top 6.  Both of the top two horses are gray.  6 of the top 10 pairs are riding for the USA.

–Hamish and Sandhills Tiger are 14th after a very nice ride this afternoon.

–Michael Pollard hasd a very steady ride aboard Wonderful Will and is the only other rider with two horses in the top 25.

–It was a mixed day for the international horses.  On one hand, they have half of the top 6 spots.  On the other hand, Joe Meyer, Mark Todd, and William are in 17th to 19th place respectively and Ollie is well back in 26th.  But there is a very long way to go.

–The distribution on the score board will make an interesting Saturday.  Tiana, Mary with Urco, and Allison are almost like a breakaway in cycling, well out ahead of the peloton.  But the trailing group is big and tightly packed–the next 20 riders are separated by just 7 points.  If the time is tough to make on the cross-country there will be a lot of reshuffling in that big group.

–All the riders I have spoken with are saying the same thing–this won’t be a dressage competition.  The course is still very soggy and, depending on how much more it can dry out, the footing will surely start to deteriorate in combinations and around the turns.  Allison might have been at a disadvantage for her dressage score going first but she has a big advantage going first on the cross-country in terms of footing. 

–There will be a meeting this afternoon with the riders to talk about the footing and the course.  It will be interesting to see if officials take any elements off of the course, but my guess is that they will wait as long as possible to make that decision because the footing is drying out as the day progresses. 

–Depending on how their horse is on the cross-country and where they are standing, different riders will have different hopes for taking elements out of the course.  But, everyone will have to ride the same course and I bet most riders will just take the mentality that they will be glad to jump whatever gets put in front of them Saturday.

–However, as Mary said in the press conference, Derek di Grazia’s course is spectacular and all of the footing talk shouldn’t take away from that for a moment.

That’s all for now.  Thanks for checking in with Eventing Nation for a great Rolex dressage phase.  Check back tonight for much more from Rolex and until then go eventing.

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