Michael Jung and fischerRocana FST are ready to defend their title. Photo by Jenni Autry.
Fifty-four horses will move on to show jumping following this morning’s final horse inspection at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event.
Sadly, Holly Payne’s mount Never OutFoxed, who looked so impressive on cross country and jumped clear with one of the fastest rounds of the day to move up to 19th place, was not accepted by the ground jury.
“Completely heartbroken,” Holly said on her Facebook page after the jog. “Fox was perfect yesterday and not one vet can find an issue with him today. Happy and healthy.”
The good news is we will see Holly in show jumping today, as she has a second horse in the competition in Santino, who is sitting in 40th place after cross country.
Lynn Symansky and Donner. Photo by Jenni Autry.
Three more horses were sent to the holding box: Boyd Martin’s mount Shamwari 4 (4th), Kyle Carter’s mount Madison Park (32nd), and Liz Halliday-Sharp’s mount HHS Cooley (36th). All three horses were accepted upon re-presentation. Lauren Kieffer’s mount Veronica (6th) was asked to jog twice and accepted.
Katherine Coleman withdrew Courage Under Fire prior to the start of the jog. It’s a bummer of a way to end their Rolex Rookie debut, and we hope to see Katherine, who is based in England, back in the U.S. soon.
“My mare is so amazing,” Katherine told EN after the jog. “She absolutely jumped her heart out for me yesterday, and I am gutted we are not going to be able to finish. She gave me the ride of my life and we made it home safe, so I am grateful. She is my hero.”
We definitely saw some tired horses this morning following yesterday’s grueling task, and Richard Jeffery’s show jumping course will almost certainly shuffle the leaderboard.
Elisa Wallace and Simply Priceless. Photo by Jenni Autry.
Aside from overnight leaders Michael Jung and fischerRocana FST, who have three rails in hand, scores are tightly bunched, with just 8.1 penalties separating the rest of the top 10, who are all U.S. combinations.
A huge shout out to all the grooms who had the horses looking spectacular in the morning Kentucky sunlight. Thoroughbreds stole the show yesterday on cross country, and they definitely did again this morning on the jog strip. Elisa Wallace’s mount Simply Priceless and Lynn Symansky’s mount Donner both looked especially fantastic and ready to go around Derek di Grazia’s course again.
Check out EN’s Instagram for more photos from the jog, and stay tuned for a full photo gallery. Show jumping starts at 1 p.m. EST, and we’ll be live tweeting all the action and running an open thread here on EN. Go Eventing!
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