Update: We have some bad news from the Rebecca Farms advanced as the word is that Suzy Elliott’s horse Chauncy reportedly died on course. No word yet on exactly why. Full disclosure, this news is coming to me from several good sources, but there will surely be an official press release later, which we will pass along as soon as we get it. Suzy is apparently fine, and our thoughts and prayers are with Suzy and her family.
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After a 20 minute hold on course, Karen and Mandiba came through in the clutch to maintain their lead in the Rebecca Farm CIC3*-W. Phillip Dutton and TruLuck were second after the dressage and posted a double clear early to put pressure on everyone else. As rider after rider crossed the finish line with time penalties, it started to feel like so many Saturdays in the past where Phillip blasted around the XC and took a big lead. But then Karen and Mandiba started on course. They had been on course for a few minutes when Max McManamy fell (more on that below) and the Max’s hold lasted around 20 minutes. Karen used her great experience to keep Mandiba focused and they posted a double clear after the long hold to take their lead into the show jumping on Sunday.
1. Karen O’Connor and Mandiba +0 44.2
2. Phillip Dutton and TruLuck +0 45.8
3. Hawley Bennett and Gin N’ Juice +6 55.6
4. Mara Dean and High Patriot +8.4 55.8
5. Buck and My Boy Bobby +5.2 56.4
Link: Full CIC3* Results
(1) The word is that Max McManamy fell at the sunken road, the horse looked fine, but they put tarps around Max. They decided not to airlift Max, but she was transported to a hospital by ambulance. For what it’s worth, apparently they announced that she was taken for observation of her ribs. Kelly Prather and Debbie Rosen also fell in the CIC3*, but they are both reportedly fine.
(2) As I mentioned, Karen was held on course after Max’s fall, and apparently her wait was exacerbated because they had to wait for another ambulance to arrive on scene. It’s hard to overstate the challenge to the horse of getting half-way around a 3* course and then having to walk in a small circle for 20 minutes. Making matters more difficult, the restart tends to create time penalties because it takes a few moments to get the horse back up to full speed. It shows a lot of maturity from Mandiba and a great mental focus from Karen to run clean and fast with a huge hold in the middle. No word yet on whether Karen used a cell phone during the hold to order Chinese food.
(3) Buck Davidson and My Boy Bobby moved up one spot to 5th with 5.2 penalties. So far this has been a good day for the US short list with the only two double clears of the day in Mandiba and Truluck, and just a few time penalties for Bobby.
(4) The road to the WEGs keeps looking promising for the Canadians with Hawley Bennet and Ginny moving up two places into 3rd with a strong XC ride. I keep waiting for a least a small chink to show in the Canadian armor, but the Maple Leafs keep looking like the real deal.
(5) Tiana Coudray and Ringwood Magister picked up a disappointing 20 penalties at fence #20, the sunken road, which caused the most issues (3) for the CIC3*. The good news for Tiana is that her CCI2* horse, Mater Hill, had a great round today and takes a 10 point lead into the show jumping. There were 7 issues on course out of 28 starters, meaning the course rode pretty close to statistically average in my guestimation.
(6) As a random aside, Mandiba’s full brother High Kingdom is 12th after the dressage with Zara Phillips at the Aston Le Walls advanced event in the UK this weekend.
(7) The CIC3* is a two horse race going into Sunday with Phillip and Truluck less than a rail behind Mandiba, and the next closest rider more than 9 points back.
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In the advanced: Buck davidson and Titanium showed why they deserved to be added to the short list last week with a double clear in the Rebecca Farm advanced. Amy Tryon had a very solid day, picking up 6 time penalties combined on Coal Creek and the short listed Leyland. Jumping around 2 advanced XC courses less than two hours apart is a great sign that Amy’s knee must be doing a lot better.
For a look at the CIC3* course, be sure to check out the video I added to our ‘Hot Links’ post this afternoon. They used a remote control helicopter with a camera on it to film the whole course. Pretty sweet.
Much more soon, including the live blog with Karen at 6PM ET. Go eventing.
