Doug Payne won the 5 year old YEH with Royal Tribute, Kelli Temple won the 4 year old with Corneel
I mentioned this morning that there were going to be some great dressage rides this afternoon at Fair Hill and the field certainly lived up to the expectations. Seven of the riders in the afternoon CCI3* moved into the top 10. Boyd Martin and the 15 year old Ying Yang Yo had the best of the many great rides and they were rewarded with a 40.4 and a four point lead heading into the cross-country. 44.2 was the score for Becky Holder and Can’t Fire Me “Teddy” as they followed up their Poplar win a few weeks ago with a lovely dressage ride to put them in second.
Fair Hill CCI3* Dressage Scores:
1. Boyd Martin and Ying Yang Yo 40.4
2. Becky Holder and Can’t Fire Me 44.2
3. Karen O’Connor and Veronica 44.6
4. Will Coleman and Twizzel 45.6
5. Jan Byyny and Inmidair 46.8
6. Phillip Dutton and Ben 47.2
7. Gina Fiore and Feral Errol 47.4
8T. Doug Payne and Running Order 47.6
8T. Allison Springer and Arthur 47.6
10. Marilyn Little-Meredith and RF Rovano Rex 49.4
[Full Fair Hill Dressage Scores]
Karen and Team Rebecca’s Veronica are in third heading into the cross-country. Karen was very pleased with Veronica’s ride from this morning and mentioned that she thinks the horse has a very bright future particularly because of her positive and hard working approach. Earlier this springTeam Rebecca bought Veronica for Karen from Scott Keach, who is currently ninth in the CCI2*.
We have written about Ying Yang Yo’s comeback story enough on Eventing Nation over the past few months that I won’t go through all of it here. The short version is that “Thomas” retired from upper level competition after Boyd fell from him in the water at Rolex ’08. Thomas spent the next two years competing at the lower levels with his owner Faye Wolf’s daughter. As Faye told me today, they treated him medically like a four-star horse with the best possible care while they competed him at novice. Faye lost Call Me Ollie in the True Prospect fire and Boyd got the comeback ride on Thomas to help get him back on his feet while Faye’ daughter was busy at school. Thomas looked better than ever today and the moment I saw him trotting around the arena I felt like he would take the lead. Boyd decided to come to America in many ways because of his successful trip to Rolex in 2006 with Thomas and he loves this horse unlike any other. It was wonderful to see them do so well today. I bet Boyd will be sitting way back jumping into the water complexes tomorrow.
Sitting in 4th place after the dressage, Twizzel has officially become known as the four-legged Cam Newton, named either for his athleticism or his penchant for stealing computers. Joking aside, Twiz was great for Will today considering their hectic preparation with just one outing at Morven since Burghley.
The CCI3* at Fair Hill has some incredible story lines this weekend. The division is filled with talented horses and riders. Some horses, like Can’t Fire Me, Veronica, Utah B, William Penn, Madeline, and many many more, are talented young horses on the rise. Others are veterans making comebacks and looking for redemption, such as Ying Yang Yo, HJ Hampton, and Rolling Stone. Still others are top horses in desperate need of a great weekend like Twizzel, Arthur, and R-Star.
Of course, you can’t look at the CCI3* rider list and not have Marilyn Little-Meredith and Nina Ligon jump off the page at you with their fabulous horses. I mention Nina and Marilyn in the same sentence because they have both received a lot of attention lately, both in love from supporters and often times petty attacks from detractors. I haven’t seen them do anything other than work hard and do their best to put themselves and their horses in a position to be successful, but tomorrow will probably be the biggest test yet for both of them.
Susan Beebee and the 8 year old Wolf were the last to ride in the CCI2*, but they saved the best for last and took the lead in Wolf’s fourth intermediate level competition. Wolf was a dressage horse who converted to eventing and he has only been jumping for two years. In the press conference at the end of the day, Susan said the CCI2* course is a traditional Derek di Grazia course–it’s not trappy but there are tests all the way through. Susan will have the challenge of riding the cross-country last in the mud on a warmblood tomorrow. Courtney Cooper and Who’s A Star are just over a rail back in second. The AECs intermediate champions Kadi Eykamp and Double Rivers Really cool of Australia tied with overnight leaders Andrea Leatherman for third on a 47.5. The CCI2* horses head out on the cross-country at 9am tomorrow.
Go eventing.
