Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class. Photo by Roya Brinkman for Shannon Brinkman Photography.
It’s a story we’ve written before, and yet another one demonstrative of the grit, strength, and talent of a certain fleabitten gray gelding who collects a fourth CCI5* trophy this weekend at the MARS Maryland 5 Star, presented by Brown Advisory.
Great Britain’s Oliver Townend was touted with a 51% win chance by Equiratings coming into today’s Michel Vaillancourt-designed show jumping track. And with just seven competitors to best, Oliver and his old hand, Ballaghmor Class (Courage II – Kilderry Place), did what they do best, delivering a clear round in a hushed stadium to clinch the victory on a final score of 31.5.
Ballaghmor Class now adds on to the titles collected at Burghley last year, Kentucky in 2021, and Burghley in 2017 (which was also his 5* debut) — and Oliver said earlier this week that if the 17-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding was fit and well after this run, that he doesn’t see a reason why he won’t aim for at least another 5* in 2025.
Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
If you take a look at Ballaghmor Class’ show jumping record, you’ll notice a trend: historically, he’s only jumped one clear round at this level, and that came at Kentucky in 2021. In his other nine starts at the level, he’s lowered at least one pole on the final day, and it’s something Oliver had words for.
“I think that it’s very difficult to judge horses’ show jumping performance when they bust a gut through mud at Badminton and Burghley, and they go in and jump on the worst possible ground you could put in front of them. He’s gone in the lead an awful lot of times, and had one down and come out, and everybody says he’s not a great show jumper. Well, he’s been on two surfaces, two good surfaces, seeing good light [at] Kentucky and Maryland, and to me, he’s jumped better than as good as any of them. I think he’s possibly, from the British team situation, not always been treated with the respect that he deserves. Because, one, he’s got me on his back, and two, he has a fence down [while in] the lead at Badminton and Burghley every so often.”
Badminton, Burghley, and Adelaide remain the three 5* events in the world that hold show jumping on grass, and of course on most grass surfaces there is also a reasonable amount of undulation that can add its own nuance.
In addition to this fourth title, Ballaghmor Class also becomes just the third horse to win more than three times at the level, joining Ginny Elliott’s Priceless and Michael Jung’s La Biosthetique Sam in this esteemed category.
Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
“It’s unbelievable,” Oliver reflected on the weekend and the win. “I’m relieved more than anything. A lot of pressure comes with riding Ballaghmor Class, I think because I expect to do well on him. And when you’re against these guys, you know, it takes some winning. It’s a five-star for a reason, and five-stars are very, very tough to win. I was very conscious that I’d come into the last two times in the lead into the show jumping and not come out being the winner. So I thought, if it went wrong this time, I’m going to start and have to get a jumping coach or something like that! So I’m relieved. I’ll stick to the system, and I’m very, very happy for his owners, Karyn Schuter, who’s a massive part of my life, and I wouldn’t still be an event rider without her, and Angela Hislop and Val Ryan. We’ve been on a massive journey with the horse, and couldn’t be prouder of him.”
Tim Price and Falco. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
At 15, Falco (Cardenio 2 – Witta, by Weinberg) is somewhat inexperienced at this level, but the two 5* showings he’s had with New Zealand’s Tim Price indicate just how talented this Hanoverian gelding owned by Sue Benson is. In his debut at Pau in 2021, he took home the title, beating out 34 other finishers to collect the trophy. Today, he moved up to finish second at Maryland after British rider David Doel and Galileo Nieuwmoed lowered a pole.
“I was a little bit nervous bringing him,” Tim said of his Paris partner. “Here was the first time he’s seen a hill. The other five-star was Pau, and so I said we’d have a little bit of a go and see how he copes with the whole job. He came through really well. It’s more learning a bit more about your horse, and every competition at this top level allows the horse to be more established at that level, so they know themselves and that stamina requirement at the end of the course a little bit better. They know how to come out the next day and try for you again. So I think every day is a school day, isn’t it?”
Tim and his wife, Jonelle, travel to Spain to compete on the Sunshine Tour in show jumping each winter, starting their season and bringing as many as 20+ horses with them for the trip. Tim wryly reflected that this year’s trip to Spain feels like it was about two years ago with everything that’s gone on in the intervening months, but he does feel the tour benefits both him and his horses.
Tim Price and Falco. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
“Jonelle and I have been going to Spain for maybe seven years now, maybe even eight, and we’ve added it to just our system,” he said. “It’s early in the year, so there’s only so much you can do at home. We get down there, the weather’s a bit kinder, you can spend a little time with the horses. You [have] good surfaces, grass and artificial. And we just feel like we get a lot done in terms of their conditioning and their strength. And also, when we come back, it’s quite typical for, out of the first three or four events, maybe two of them get canceled for weather. And we don’t feel that that’s too much of a loss, because they’ve already done quite a lot during February and March down in Spain. So we decided to build that in into our plan, and it’s been working really well.”
Falco today adds on to his impressive show jumping record; as of this weekend, he’s only had two poles down in 29 FEI eventing competitions, the most recent one at Aachen in 2021. “This is the part that is always really, really good fun on him, because he is just an out and out jumper in his own way,” Tim said. “I’m not saying he’s a top show jumper if he was to be a pure show jumper, but the way that he just gets in the air is a lot of fun. It brings an element of pressure, because he jumps a lot of clear rounds, but it means that he’s expected to jump a good clear around. So that’s a little bit something that that I have to overcome, but when I’m on him and he comes to a fence, he gives you the most confidence that you could imagine, and you just squeeze him up with your leg. And today was no different. Thankfully, he had a great day yesterday. He pulled up very well, and so I had a lot of horse today.”
David Doel and Galileo Nieuwmoed. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
David Doel will have to wait another turn to snag his first 5* victory, finishing his eighth 5* with Galileo Nieuwmoed (Carambole – Sjaloma, by Harcos) in third place on a finishing score of 38.5. This marks the sixth top-10 finish at the level for this true-blue 5* horse, who he describes as “just a phenomenal horse.” It’s also the third time David has finished on his dressage score at 5*, which is an incredible accomplishment on its own. As the sole rider to catch the time on cross country, he was the only one to accomplish this feat this weekend.
“I just sort of felt that, actually, I let him down today and didn’t quite do him justice,” David said. “I started in the distance, going down to the treble, and was a little bit quiet, and it just made him work a little bit too hard. Like Tim says, definitely he wouldn’t be an out and out Falco double clear machine, but he is a pretty phenomenal horse, and normally a very, very good jumping horse. So yeah, that was definitely sort of a my mistake today. I kick myself a bit as I always like to try and put a little bit more pressure on Oliver!”
Buck Davidson and Sorocaima. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Fourth and top U.S. rider in the field was Buck Davidson with the off-track Thoroughbred Sorocaima (Rock Hard Ten xx – Sankobasi xx, by Pulpit xx). Buck was disappointed in his two rails down after securing a double clear at Kentucky earlier this spring, but the improvement in this horse’s show jumping is notable nonetheless.
“I think he’s just getting stronger,” Buck said, describing “Cam” as not loving other horses coming at him in warm-up and therefore not finding a lot of value in practicing at jumper shows. Instead, he’ll go off property to another farm and set up courses to practice in unusual environments. “Funny enough, I took him to some jumping shows and all it did was make him more nervous and jump worse. So it’s just getting him confident. I don’t jump him very big in the warm-up. He doesn’t have a rail down because he’s not trying. He sometimes just gets out of shape, and so I’ve just tried to work on his shape and really just keep everything consistent.”
Buck also shrewdly added a thought, alluding to the low number of finishers here this week and the all-European podium. “I think with these guys [indicating Oliver, Tim and David to his right], I don’t know exactly the record, but I think the horses that finished here and did well here, the emphasis was on this [event]. It wasn’t on the short four-stars leading up to this. And I think we all had a plan on how we wanted to do well here. Sometimes the five-star horses are not going flat out around [four-star Short events], and I think that keeping the horses sound fresh and happy and ready for the big job at the end of the year is actually the learning thing, not actually anything at the competition.”
Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
This is certainly something that’s interesting to look at when handicapping a 5* field. I like to look and see where riders have seemed to push harder for time, and I’ll use Falco as an example here (Oliver also is well-known for coming out, particularly at the start of the season, and having some slow canters around Intermediate and 4*-S events). You can clearly see a pattern of putting the pedal down on Long format cross country courses, while Tim slowed up and accumulated more time penalties, generally speaking, at 4*-S and below competitions. This is a pattern we see often with some of these stalwart horses and riders, and I do think there are some key takeaways there.
It’s certainly been a wild weekend of eventing at this year’s MARS Maryland 5 Star, and I do hope you’ve enjoyed following along. I truly hope to see the entry list for this event grow each year, and we are all looking forward to seeing what Olympic course designer Pierre le Goupil has in store for us next year. There’s a distinct visual difference in the styles of the French designers versus those from other regions of the world, and it’s safe to say we can expect some rather significant changes to the look and feel of this course to be forthcoming over the next few years.
While much chatter and discussion (which, in my opinion, is never a bad thing) surrounding cross country yesterday and the entry numbers this week, my conclusion is that there is never a single answer to the questions we have. We certainly saw some horses and riders who will be taking some homework home, others who simply had some mistakes that they’ll be able to build on, and others who really rose to the occasion across both divisions here this weekend. I’ve no doubt these discussions will (and should) continue, and in the meantime we’ll look forward to seeing you back here for the five year anniversary of our newest CCI5* event in beautiful Cecil County.
Until then, Go Eventing.
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