Classic Eventing Nation

Andrew Nicholson and Quimbo clinched the win with a beautiful clear round in show jumping.

Andrew Nicholson and Quimbo came into the Rolex stadium with two rails in hand, but ultimately didn’t need it, as the pair put in one of just five clear rounds of the day and added three time faults to clinch the victory. Show jumping proved to be very influential, with the last jump serving as the bogey fence, coming down more than any other jump today. But Quimbo didn’t touch any rails and jumped like he wasn’t fatigued in the slightest after his double clear cross-country trip yesterday. Andrew’s win here at Rolex this weekend creates an unprecedented situation we may never see again in the history of eventing, as Andrew and William Fox-Pitt will now battle it out for the Rolex Grand Slam next weekend at Badminton.

William finished in second place with Seacookie TSF after jumping double clear despite breaking a finger on his left hand in the show jumping. This pair also jumped double clear yesterday on cross country and looked very good today. The horse looked a bit tired coming through the Calumet triple combination, but William is one of the best show jumping riders in the world and knows exactly how to coax a tired horse home on show jumping day. This was not the weekend William envisioned, as he also came to Rolex with Chilli Morning and led the dressage overnight coming into cross country. But after retiring Chilli early on in the course, William opened up room for Andrew to slip by with Quimbo. Andrew also finished in third place with Calico Joe despite pulling three rails in show jumping, an outcome Andrew said could happen in yesterday’s press conference. While show jumping isn’t this horse’s strong suit, it still says a lot that Andrew was able to drop three poles and still take third place.

William Fox-Pitt and Seacookie TSF finished in second place.

Buck Davidson had a fantastic weekend overall, but unfortunately struggled today in show jumping, pulling two rails with all three of his rides. After two knockdowns at two of the three jumps in the last line with Ballynoe Castle RM — who was sitting in third place coming into today — Buck left the arena looking gutted. But the crowd still showed him an incredible amount of love, and Buck still finishes as the highest-placed American rider in fourth place with Reggie. Buck also finished in ninth place with Mar De Amor and 22nd with Park Trader — definitely a result to be proud of. If it’s any consolation for Buck, he’ll have a two-year lease on a Land Rover Evoque thanks to coming home closest to optimum time yesterday on cross country and winning the Land Rover Ride of the Day.

Lynn Symansky and Donner had the weekend of a lifetime, finishing in fifth place in the horse’s first trip to Rolex with a fantastic clear show jumping round. While Lynn was a bit disappointed after her dressage test, she didn’t let that faze her going into cross country yesterday, where she finished double clear despite riding with her right hand in a cast due to a spiral fracture in her pinkie. She raised “the claw” — as she’s been calling her hand — to the very enthusiastic crowd when she came home clear, and she sported a million-dollar smile when she came through the in-gate. Donner is quite simply a horse for the future, and we will be seeing much more from him. He’s also one of three Thoroughbreds to finish in the top six, the others being Calico Joe and Pawlow. Although Will Faudree pulled a rail with Pawlow, he still had an excellent weekend and very quietly stalked the leaders all weekend. He brought Ernie around cross country yesterday with a smooth trip, picking up 6.4 time penalties to move into fifth. While he dropped a rail today to drop one place to finish in sixth, this was still a super weekend for this pair.

Buck Davidson and Ballynoe Castle RM finished in fourth place.

Canada had a great day, with Hawley Bennett-Awad and Gin & Juice finishing as the highest-placed Canadian pair in seventh place. Hawley had one of the only five clear trips this afternoon, and considering the explosive cheer she received upon crossing the finish line, you would’ve think she’d won the whole thing. Hawley took a celebratory gallop past the grandstand with a very excited Ginny doing airs above the ground. Hawley and Ginny won the hearts of the Rolex crowd on Saturday by energetically flying around the cross-country course. Ginny proved that yesterday’s brilliance was no fluke, and they moved up four places into seventh. Peter Barry and Kilrodan Abbott delivered the first clear trip of the day and also received a lot of support from the crowd. Peter and Eddie moved up eight places from 25th into 17th — more than any other pair today — thanks to their double-clear trip.

Kristi Nunnink and R-Star finished in eighth place after dropping one rail. The mare jumped beautifully today despite the rail, and she also looked fantastic on cross-country yesterday, pulling Kristi around and absolutely eating up the course. Crowd favorites Peter Atkins and Henry Jota Hampton — the only pair competing for Australia this weekend — came oh so close to having a clear trip today, but pulled the final rail. The crowd still showed Peter and Henny a lot of love, and they finished the weekend in 10th place after jumping clear on cross country yesterday and coming home with just 1.6 penalties. In a very touching moment, Peter gave Henny a huge hug after hopping off at the in-gate, showing just how much this horse means to him.

Lynn Symansky and Donner finished in fifth place.

There were five clear rides this afternoon out of 29 pairs — Andrew Nicholson and Quimbo, William Fox-Pitt and Seacookie TSF, Lynn Symansky and Donner, Hawley Bennett-Awad and Gin & Juice, and Peter Barry with Kilrodan Abbott. There were just four double-clears in the show jumping, with Quimbo finishing three seconds over the optimum, likely spending a few extra seconds as he cleared each fence by inches. Seven pairs had just one rail. Four other pairs incurred time penalties. The U.S. only had one of five double-clears, despite starting the day with just over half of the show jumpers. Canada was the only country with more than one double-clear show jumping round. Breaking down the results by country, New Zealand dominated with Andrew Nicholson finished with two horses in the top three. Great Britain claimed second with William and Seacookie TSF’s performance. The U.S. finished five pairs in the top 10, Canada had Hawley Bennett-Awad and Ginny, and Peter Atkins and Henny gave Australia one pair in the top 10 with 10th place.

Only two pairs finished on their dressage score — William Fox-Pitt and Seacookie TSF and Lynn Symansky and Donner. William and Seacookie moved up from 10th to second on a perfect weekend of jumping, and Lynn Symansky and Donner moved up from 19th to fifth. Hawley Bennett-Awad and Gin & Juice moved all the way up from 29th to seventh by adding just one second on the cross country to their dressage score. Phillip Dutton and Fernhill Eagle moved up 23 places to 11th with just a rail added for their weekend’s work. James Alliston and Parker moved up an impressive 36 places with just a rail today and a double-clear yesterday to finish in 14th place; he also finished in 23rd with Jumbo’s Jake.

It was a wild weekend here at Rolex, and things are only going to get more interesting going forward this week as we prepare for a showdown at Badminton between William Fox-Pitt and Andrew Nicholson. William joked at the press conference that Michael Jung would win anyway, so there was no use predicting a battle for the Rolex Grand Slam, but it will be a very exciting week nonetheless. Stay tuned for a full report from the Rolex press conference with William, Andrew and Buck, as well as a lot more photos from show jumping today at Rolex. Go eventing.

[Live Scores]

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Quimbo jumps clear and adds three time penalties to seal the deal, winning Andrew his first Rolex Kentucky title

William Fox-Pitt and Seacookie rose to 2nd place with a double clear despite William breaking a finger on his left hand in the process, and finished on their dressage score.

Andrew couldn’t quite pull off the 1-2 a la Mary King, but finished third on Calico Joe; he said that jumping the last on him with three down he was as pleased and proud of him as jumping the last on Quimbo, freely admitting that Calico Joe “is no show-jumper!”

Buck Davidson and Ballynoe Castle RM slipped to 4th place with two rails down

Lynn Symansky and Donner move up to fifth place with a splendid clear, AND won best turned out at the Final Horse Inspection AND she and William are the only pair to finish on their dressage score.

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Welcome to show jumping day at Rolex!  Our friends at the USEF Network are providing a wonderful free online live viewing experience all weekend from Rolex for our readers within North America.  If you are at home trying to follow Rolex live, that’s the place to start–click the link below to see all of the action live.  As always, we are meeting together here on EN to provide our own insights, guests, war stories that we probably shouldn’t tell, and ridiculousness.  Please jump into the discussion and join us right away!

Watch SJ Live: USEF Network (Free, North America), FEI TV (Outside North America), TV Broadcast Details

[Live Blog Archived]

Schedule: SJ is scheduled to start at 1:07pm ET, with awards scheduled for 3:00pm.  29 horses are set to show jump.  Stay tuned for any schedule updates.

SJ Links: Live Scores, SJ Preview with Boyd, RK3DE Homepage, Jenni’s Rider Profiles

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Note: We apologize in advance for any technical issues or server crashes, which are something of a Rolex tradition on EN.  We are having some traffic load issues when we get over 250 commenters on the blogging software.  If an error message displays above this note, please try clicking on the post title or refreshing the page, or email [email protected] and we will try to help.

As always, stay tuned to EN throughout the day for the latest Rolex news, results, and ridiculousness.  Go eventing.

Boyd Martin was kind enough to take a few moments to preview the Rolex show jumping course for Eventing Nation.  Boyd pulled a tired Trading Aces up three fences from home yesterday, but he’s still here coaching his student Caitlin Silliman and her ride Catch A Star.  Boyd flies out this evening for ankle surgery this week, although Boyd is joking that he has half a mind to skip out on the surgery.  Fortunately Silva promises to make sure Boyd goes through with it!  We wish Boyd the very best as well as all of the riders who have work to do this afternoon.

Go eventing.

Andrew Nicholson currently leads with Quimbo.

All 30 cross-country finishers presented this morning at the jog at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event. Twenty-nine horses passed, with only James Alliston’s Tivoli being spun. Three horses in total were held: James’ Tivoli, Meghan O’Donoghue’s Pirate, and Kendal Lehari’s Daily Edition. Both Pirate and Daily Edition passed upon reinspection. Word around the barns is that the vast majority of horses look excellent after running Derek Di Grazia’s cross-country course yesterday, which we can likely attribute to excellent footing. A huge crowd turned out to watch the jog this morning, with the crowd stacked eight deep at some spots. The sun was shining at the beginning of the jog, but clouds began to roll in as the jog progressed, an omen that we will likely be seeing rain for show jumping later this afternoon.

Andrew Nicholson is sitting in second place with Calico Joe.

It’s a real shame for James that Tivoli was spun, as this horse was sitting the best out of his three rides in 14th place after cross country. But James’ two other mounts Parker, sitting in 21st place, and Jumbo’s Jake, sitting in 26th place, both looked wonderful this morning during the jog, and it’s still a huge achievement to bring two out of three mounts into Sunday’s show jumping at Rolex. All of Buck Davidson’s three mounts were accepted, and he heads into show jumping in excellent position with Ballynoe Castle RM setting in third place. The crowd waited anxiously to hear if Reggie would be accepted, and there was a huge cheer when that confirmation was made. The crowd is really pulling for Buck this weekend, who is the highest-placed American rider heading into show jumping. Buck is also sitting in eighth place with Mar De Amor and 23rd place with Park Trader.

Buck Davidson is sitting in third place with Ballynoecastle RM.

Quimbo looked incredible this morning and very fresh. Andrew gave him a pat on the nose to settle the horse as he pranced a little, showing that he looks in fine form to seal the deal and take the Rolex win this afternoon. Andrew said yesterday in the show jumping that this horse is a very good show jumper, so it’s hard to bet against him. Should things go awry with Quimbo, Andrew also has a chance to clinch the win with his second-placed horse, Calico Joe, although Andrew said this horse is not as solid of a show jumper as Quimbo. Buck has an excellent chance sitting in third place with Ballynoecastle RM, and, of course, we can’t count out William Fox-Pitt and Seacookie TSF — who looked lovely this morning — sitting in fourth place. Will Faudree, who is in fifth place with Pawlow, looked very dapper this morning; someone standing next to me commented that he was “bringing sexy back.”

Will Faudree is sitting in fifth place with Pawlow.

Quite a few horses looked very fresh this morning. Sal Dali hauled Beth Perkins down the jog lane and looked like he was ready to go around cross country again. Jan Byyny’s Syd Kent also looked very keen and ready to go; she heads into show jumping in 13th place. Kendal Lehari — who won our Ballsy Ride of the Day Award yesterday — wins Best Dressed today. She rocked a hot pink dress that someone standing near me observed matched the color of the geraniums lining the jog lane. Daniel Clasing’s Houston, who skipped around cross country yesterday for a double clear in his four-star debut, also looked ready to go, and Lynn Symansky’s Donner looked brilliant. It will be an exciting finale to Rolex this afternoon. Show jumping starts at 1:15 p.m. Stay tuned for much more.

Kendal Lehari sported a fabulous pink dress with Daily Edition.