Maya Black & Doesn’t Play Fair Prevail Through Blustery CIC3* Show Jumping at The Fork

Maya Black and Doesn't Play Fair. Photo by Jenni Autry. Maya Black and Doesn't Play Fair. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Winds gusted at up to 25 miles per hour at The Fork today, making for dramatic rounds as the riders and ring crew alike battled blustery conditions throughout the day. Maya Black and Doesn’t Play Fair ultimately prevailed over Mother Nature, jumping a stylish clear round to move into first place after overnight dressage leader Jessica Phoenix and an exuberant Pavarotti pulled two rails.

Chris Barnard’s course rode fairly smoothly for the majority of the division, with 25 of the 52 horses and riders jumping clear and inside the time — about 48 percent. With that many clear rounds, any rails down did prove costly. Ellie MacPhail and RF Eloquence, who were tied for second place overnight with Maya and “Cody,” slipped down to eighth place after pulling one rail.

Maya and Cody, an 11-year-old Holsteiner gelding owned by Dawn Dofelmier, led after the first day of dressage and now find themselves back on the top of the leaderboard. After having two rails down at Carolina International to drop out of a three-way tie for first place, Maya said she went back to the drawing board to combine different strategies that worked for her in the past.

“I know he’s capable of (jumping clear), but I feel like I’m finally bringing a few different things together, tweaking a few different things and taking a little bit of a style I was riding in last year with a bit of the rideability I’ve been trying to get this year. At Carolina I felt like I was trying to put him in a place where he was fighting me. He has his own free will, and it’s a little bit of a balancing act,” Maya said.

“Hopefully moving forward we can continue to work together. There are times when he has to become more rideable and times I have to let his balance come up. He’s a small horse. It’s helpful when he can bring his head and neck up before the fences and see what he’s going to do, as long as he can still stay rideable.”

Lauren Kieffer and Veronica. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Lauren Kieffer and Veronica. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Lauren Kieffer and Veronica and Phillip Dutton and Mighty Nice jumped clear rounds to each move up two spots on the leaderboard into second and third places, respectively, on their dressage scores of 42.1 and 42.7. That’s the best CIC3* dressage score of Veronica’s career, and the 14-year-old Dutch mare owned by Team Rebecca jumped beautifully today, too.

“This kind of footing is not always her favorite, but she was great,” Lauren said. “I thought the course was good. It had lots of lines, lots of related distances and a couple of places where you had to make a decision. For the most part it rode pretty consistently and the rails were spread out.”

Reflecting back to yesterday’s personal best dressage test for “Troll,” Lauren added: “I thought the trot work was the best she’s ever had. She got pretty excited in the canter work. … She’s so much stronger than she has been in the past. She gets a little better every year. I just have to make sure to work her in enough at Kentucky.”

Lauren is moving a little gingerly this afternoon after falling with Landmark’s Miner’s Diamond in Preliminary cross country early this morning at fence 18, a cabin going into water. The horse is totally fine, and Lauren shook off any residual soreness to jump clear rounds with both Meadowbrook’s Scarlett and Veronica in the CIC3* soon after.

Phillip Dutton and Mighty Nice. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Phillip Dutton and Mighty Nice. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Phillip’s domination of the CIC3* continued today, as he jumped clear rounds with all five of his rides, though the windy conditions didn’t make it easy at times. A jump blew over right in front of Phillip and Fernhill Fugitive just as they were about to start their round. Kudos to the jump crew for working hard to keep jumps upright!

Looking to the rest of Phillip’s rides, David Garrett’s Indian Mill moved up to fourth place on 43.8, and Tom Tierney and Annie Jones’ Fernhill Fugitive now sits in fifth place on 44.7. Fernhill Cubalawn, owned by Tom Tierney, Simon Roosevelt and Caroline Moran, is in sixth place on 44.9 — giving Phillip four horses in the top six of the CIC3*.

Phillip said he thought Mighty Nice’s round was one of the best ever for the 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by the HND Group. “It wasn’t that difficult of a show jumping track, but it was a bit windy with a lot of distractions,” Phillip said. “I thought he kept his composure, and it sets us up well for the next couple of weeks (for Kentucky).”

As for Phillip’s thoughts on Happy’s dressage test yesterday: “I’m really excited about the way he’s going. He seems to be getting better and better. David (O’Connor) and I have a great working partnership on the flat. We have a plan for each horse and where to go and how to build on it from week to week, which is perfect for me.”

Colleen Rutledge and Covert Rights. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Colleen Rutledge and Covert Rights. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Colleen Rutledge and her own Covert Rights delivered yet another clear round today to move up to seventh place on 45.1, continuing to prove that they’ve unlocked a successful strategy in this phase. Two off-track Thoroughbreds are rounding out the top 10 in equal ninth place thanks to clear rounds, with Allie Knowles and Sound Prospect LLC’s Sound Prospect and Lynn Symansky and the Donner Syndicate’s Donner both on scores of 46.7.

Despite the wind’s best effort to blow riders right out of the saddle, everyone managed to stay in the tack for CIC3* show jumping. We did have one bummer of a technical elimination when Sinead Halpin and Manoir de Carneville, who won the CIC3* here in 2014, went off course. They picked up their final CIC3* qualifier at Carolina two weeks ago, so that won’t hamper their plans for Kentucky.

Click here to view the full live scores in the division and here to catch up on all of EN’s coverage so far. Stay tuned for more from #TheFork!

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