The second water question at 11. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Ian Stark’s second design here at the Maryland 5 Star has certainly upped the ante from its inaugural running in 2021. It was to be expected, for a designer doing his first 5* track on land that was previously untested for this level, that the first year may have left some ideas on the table. Indeed, while the 2021 iteration of the Maryland track was certainly up to snuff, there was nonetheless chatter about the time being rather catchable and a few other rumblings that might have included the word “soft” tossed about in the mix.
“Soft” is a funny term to use when referring to a 5* track, if you ask me. I hear it tossed around from time to time while listening to riders in the mixed zone, but the bottom line remains: it’s still a 5*, after all.
But if Ian heard riders calling his first design “soft”, he certainly took that feedback to heart as this year’s track is decidedly not so. At a stiff 11 minute, 30 second optimum time (30 seconds longer than 2021) it stands to be a stout fitness test, despite the fact the course this year starts and finishes in very different locations from last with attention to horse fitness called to mind.
You can check out Tilly’s full analysis of the course coming later this morning, and you can also take a fence-by-fence walk with Ian Stark himself over on the CrossCountryApp tour here in the meantime.
We chatted up the riders over the last two days as they finished their dressage tests to collect their reactions to the track, and here’s what some of them had to say:
Tim Price
“Having not ridden this one, it’s hard to truly compare them, but I like the layout a lot better this time with where he’s got the start and the finish and how that impacts the the energy requirement around the course. It’s big. I think it’s maybe a bit bigger in places, and also last year, the time was quite easy. And I don’t think that’s the case this year, it’s wheeled a lot tighter. So that’s going to put more emphasis on the likes of ourselves — when I say ourselves, the guys that have traveled over — that you want to make the most of your trip, so you want to be quick and that puts a different element of everything on the course. Everything becomes bigger, the hills become steeper, and the technicality coming home on a tired horse becomes more extreme. So it’s a tough course this year I think.”
Allie Knowles
“It’s enough to do out there. It’s it has some nice changes from last year. It’s a different feeling track than, say, Kentucky but [Morswood] did it well last year and I’m going to go with that — that he’s going to do it well again this year. There’s not one thing in particular that he is not good at. I just need to be paying attention the whole time and minding him, and I know he’ll mind me, and we’ll give it our best.”
Astier Nicolas
“I appreciate everything I’ve seen here last year. The place is fantastic, very good ground. I really like the courses of Ian and I think he did a great job this year. Learning a bit more from the terrain, getting to know it more than last year. And I’m really happy with what he’s built this year.”
Liz Halliday-Sharp
“It’s a very different track. Kind of old school in places, which isn’t a bad thing. It will obviously be the most terrain [Cooley Quicksilver] has ever experienced, which will be a challenge for him. But he’s also extremely fit. I think he’s fitter than we’ve ever had him. And I think this is the next progression for him. You know, when a horse has done three five-stars, they got that depth of fitness in them. So I think this is a great challenge for him and will only make him a better, stronger, fitter horse for the future. So I don’t see anything there he can’t do. Obviously, it’s a real five-star and it’s very challenging at the end. I think he’s asking a lot of tired horses. So that’s going to be, really staying on the ball all the way to the end I think is going to be really important. Just keep them with you.”
Tamie Smith
“It looks like you’d better be able to see a distance from a long way away. Lots of straight lines and galloping. Not a lot to super back them off, and then you have a combination, so I think — I was a little going, ‘gosh, if I was on Mai Baum it would be fantastic, I could come in really fast’ but horses that fences don’t back them off, the riders are going to have quite a bit of work to do.”
Doug Payne
“It’s I think it’s beefed up from last year. I think the layout I like better because it’s not like you’re going out and back on the last two segments. Time is going to be challenging for sure. I think that it’s almost back-loaded — to me, the hardest part is the crab water, the drop — and that’s all like in the last minute and a half, two minutes. We have the luxury of going around at the end a bit and I think [Ian] sets courses that are super fair, it’s right to there to be done. But there’s so many unpredictable aspects that I don’t know that you can really be stuck in one exact plan. It’s gonna be stick to your line and good balance and, you know, let the footwork sort of sort stuff out.”
Hannah Sue Hollberg
“I like it a lot. I like it more than last year. Last year, it kind of had more of a jarring kind of feel when you walk it. This year is more flowing. The beginning you can really go fast and make up some time. But Ian’s done a good job of kind of throwing little tricks in there to make sure people are on their toes, I think, and the terrain obviously is a factor. But I really think it looks great. Once you get to the first water then it kind of comes at you a bit more and I think a lot of the harder questions are kind of from there. And I mean, actually, from there, it kind of just builds more and more and more to the very end. So the beginning kind of lures you in, I think, and you’ll be going so fast that then you have to really be careful not to be completely out of control and make sure your horse has enough energy left to answer the question.”
Buck Davidson
“It’s, there’s plenty to do. You know, honestly, number four, those birds look very vertical early, you know, and so I’ll have to look after him there. There’s some big things followed by some things that are maybe, to me, not quite up to the five-star level, which in some ways makes it difficult for the horses to back up. But horses for courses, and it’s all to be done. It’s by no stretch easy, it’s just a little different. You know, the fence in the arena, you could jump a Preliminary horse over, and then you go to that [water] in the back and go, oh my God, you need a six-star horse. So, you know, it’s just a little bit different that way.”
Oliver Townend
“It’s a five-star designed by, in my opinion, one of the best designers in the world, [Ian Stark] and Derek Di Grazia. [Ian’s] got a tremendous amount of feel because he’s ridden around so many himself, but he’s been trying to make them big and it’s definitely big. It’s definitely challenging, but it’s horse friendly.”
Phillip Dutton
“It’s strong, certainly strong. Apart from the walking out to the start and then walking back from the finish, I like where it starts and finishes from a horse point of view. And that first section, I think it’s quite fast. There’s not a lot to slow you up. So, I could see people getting up on the time there. And then it’s seeing how much horse they’ve got left at the end.”
Will Coleman
“I think it’s a lot. It’s a long way around. I think he’s sort of stepped the jumping bits up a little bit from last year. There’s more jumping to be done, and what he’s put out there is sort of big and testing, basically until the finish. Which you know, at 11:30 you’re answering questions pretty much all the way up to 10:45, basically. It’s going to be a lot. The going should be good, which I think will be really helpful. But I’m intrigued to see where we are. My horse has got a couple five-stars under his belt. The distance is always a question with him. He’s so big and he’s not not a ton of blood. I think we’ve got him pretty fit and we’ll see how we do.
“I think this will suit certain horses more than like a Pratoni course would. But I think if you want to kind of be a top rider, I think you have to be able to ride all the courses. And I think this is a good representation of five-star for our sport. I’m excited to see if I can go out there and do it. It’s not technical, like twisty and tricky, but it’s technical in that he’s really put a lot of challenging things in front of difficult terrain. He’s asking you, can you keep your horse in front of the leg and balance to really big jumps?”
Jessica Phoenix
“It’s incredibly long. It’s incredibly hilly. It’s a lot of big bold jumps. Lots of technical questions to be asked, and [Wabbit] is definitely the horse I want to be sitting on going into the start box tomorrow. Kentucky is also a beautiful track; this one has more hills used in a different kind of way. Kentucky has longer gradual hills. This one is more like a quick sprint up and then you’re down a hill and a quick sprint up and then down the hill. And the footing here is just unbelievable what they’ve been able to accomplish in such a short time. Honestly, when we walked the first day before the rain came, I was thinking ‘wow, we could actually use a little bit more’ because it was still a little bit hard in places and yesterday as I was walking in the torrential rains, I thought maybe this could be too much rain. It’s never perfect, but I’m sure it’ll be great.”
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