The past few days have seen some significant withdraws from the Rolex entry list and, with a couple of additions, the official number of Rolex entries sits at 59.
(1) Phillip’s list of entered horses has shrunk from 6 to 3, with Woodburn, TruLuck, and Connaught all being removed from the entry list. Phillip’s three remaining horses are The Foreman, Kheops, and Jan’s Waterfront. Woodburn is still on the list of accepted entries at Badminton.
(2) Buck’s entered horses have shrunk from 3 to 1, with Ballynoecastle RM and My Boy Bobby withdrawing their names. Buck still has the beautiful Titanium set to go.
What all of this means:
-I won’t get into dealing with each of these withdraws specifically, but we have discussed before that the USET has a history of giving proven pairs a pass at Spring three-days to save them for the international competitions (think WEGs), sometimes particularly in cases where soundness is a concern. My Boy Bobby (3rd Rolex ’09), Ballynoecastle (clear Rolex ’09, Burghley ’09), Connaught (1st Rolex ’08), and TruLuck (4th Burghley ’09) all fit the profile of proven horses with proven riders.
-This also means that 5 of the top 10 horses in the field have withdrawn, really opening things up for other hopefuls, and making a Grand Slam (no we are not talking about the Denny’s breakfast platter) for Ollie all the more likely.
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As an additional note, Ashley Adams has withdrawn Vaunted from Rolex due to soundness concerns, and you can read about the decision on Ashley’s blog. In this period right before four-stars quite a few entrants are typically going through issues with staying sound. Many riders are having lots of long conversations with the vets followed by sleepless nights. We applaud Ashley for making a good horsemanship decision in the lovely Vaunted’s best interest, and I appreciate that Ashley has given a public glimpse into one of the toughest decisions a rider will ever have to make. We wish Ashley and Vaugn, and all of the remaining Rolex entrants the best of luck moving forward.
