Phillip Dutton and Mr. Medicott at The Fork. Photo by Jenni Autry.
It’s a beautiful day for show jumping here at The Fork, and both Advanced divisions kicked off the action first thing this morning. In the Advanced Test A division, overnight leaders Emily Beshear and Here’s to You jumped a lovely clear but picked up three time penalties, dropping them to fourth place. That moves Phillip Dutton and Mr. Medicott into first place on 29.7 thanks to their double clear, and Phillip is also now holding second place with Mighty Nice after also jumping clear. Phillip was set to make it three for three today with Trading Aces, but they had the final fence down in the triple combination at the very end of the course. Lillian Heard and Share Option also jumped one of the nine double clears in this division to move up to third place on 30.6.
Katie Frei and Houdini. Photo by Jenni Autry.
In the Test B division, Katie Frei and Houdini kept their overnight lead with one of the eight double clear trips in this division; they’ll carry their dressage score of 29.4 into the cross country tomorrow. Lauren Kieffer and RF Cosima will stay in second place on 30.3 with a very smooth and forward clear round. Sarah Dunkerton and Matapeake, who were tied for second place with Lauren and Big Mama overnight, unfortunately got a bit discombobulated coming into a combination about halfway through the course, and the horse slammed on the brakes. Lizzie Snow and Coal Creek, who were in third place coming into show jumping, pulled a rail, and Sally Cousins and Tsunami moved past them to round out the top three with their double clear trip.
Lillian Heard and Share Option. Photo by Jenni Autry.
It was a bit of a blustery day so far, and the wind definitely led to some unlucky moments in the triple combination, as multiple riders made it through without a problem only to have a pole fall seconds later after a big gust of wind. As evidenced by the number of double clear trips in the divisions, the course rode very smoothly overall, with the problems that did crop up scattered throughout the course. The track is being changed over now for the big CIC3* division, and I’ll be back early this afternoon with a full report, as well as more photos and videos. In the meantime, catch Samantha Clark’s excellent interview with Emily and Jeff Beshear over on the PRO blog here.
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