Becky Holder and Comet Lead the Bromont CIC3* at the Lunch Break

Michelle Mueller and Amistad (CAN)

We are at the lunch break in the CIC3* division with 16 rides in the books.  Becky Holder and the superstar Courageous Comet took the lead early this morning on a 44.8 and no one from the morning session was quite able to catch them.  A few slight inconsistencies in Comet’s test were overpowered by his great movement.  It’s a familiar sight to see the OTTB at the top of the leader board and I’ll be interested to see how the 44.8 holds up with a bunch of great dressage horses getting ready to compete this afternoon including Riddle Master, Mr. Medicott, Twizzel, Can’t Fire Me, and the list goes on and on.

[Bromont Live Scores]

–Hannah Burnett and Harbour Pilot presented their usual picture of consistency and accuracy to score a 45.2 and move into second at lunch time.  Will Faudree and Pawlow produced a similarly consistent and accurate test and I was surprised they didn’t score a bit better than their 49.5.

–Allison Springer with Arthur and Clark Montgomery with Loughan Glen were the two morning pairs that I felt had the best chance to catch Becky and Comet, but they fell just short with a 46.0 and 48.0 respectively.   Loughan Glen’s presentation was lovely but his score suffered from a few bobbles in accuracy.  Arthur worked his way through the test with ears pricked and he might have been a bit too stiff to let the judges give him the really high marks that we are used to.

–Peter Barry and Kilrodan Abbot received huge cheers from his hometown Canadian crowd.  Peter lives about 20 minutes from Bromont and he is hosting Boyd and Silva this weekend at his house.  Peter scored a respectable 54.0, which won’t place very well but only because this is such a fantastically talented CIC3* field.

–Crowd favorites Jan Byyny and Inmidair also drew big cheers when they completed a very smart and accurate test.

–Canadian rider Hawley Bennett and 5 O’Clock Somewhere delivered a lovely consistent test that drew all smiles from the Team Canada connections looking on.  They scored a 52.0 to put them in solid position heading into the cross-country tomorrow.  They were the highest placed CIC3* Canadians of the morning group.  Hawley will ride the experienced mare Gin N Juice in the afternoon session.

Your CIC3* Friday morning photo gallery, click on each photo to enlarge.  Special apologies this morning to Vancover:

The internet is still giving us problems despite all efforts from the wonderful folks at Bromont and our friends at EventEntries.com.  Stay tuned for much more from Bromont as rain clouds are forming above the venue.  Go eventing.