Germany’s Michael Jung smashed yet another record when winning the Kentucky Three-Day Event for the third year running on the 12-year-old FischerRocana, a mare that may not have the biggest movement but certainly has the biggest heart. Jung did have a jumping fence down, but his supremacy in the dressage and cross-country meant he could afford it and is second in the FEI Classics™ after three out of six legs behind the superbly talented Frenchman Maxime Livio (FRA), who finished runner-up at Kentucky on Qalao Des Mers with a clear jumping round. “She is a really wonderful horse, a top fighting girl. She jumped wonderfully and was only a bit spooky at the white fence. I really like Kentucky – and not just because I win here! - but because I feel very welcome. You can train the horse for every phase and it’s why I like it and why I come back.” Michael Jung (GER) With one FEI Classics™ win each, and a second place each, Livio and Jung both have their sights firmly on the 2016/17 series title. However only Jung is competing at Badminton next weekend, fourth leg of the series, which could be his opportunity to step up to top the leaderboard. Images; Rebecca Berry/FEI Both Livio and Zara Tindall, the only British athlete in the field, finished on their dressage scores. Tindall was ecstatic with her third place after a beautiful clear round on High Kingdom and it must have laid the ghost of the disappointment two years when she had to withdraw before dressage when the horse suffered a freak injury. Matthew Brown (USA) slipped from fourth to sixth after hitting the very first rail with BCF Super Socks, so it was the super-consistent Phillip Dutton (USA), who has now completed Kentucky an amazing 40 times, who captured yet another national title as highest placed USA rider, as he moved up to fourth with a clear round on the 18-year-old Mr Medicott, a horse having his last four-star run after an illustrious career. Hannah Sue Burnett (USA) was fifth on Under Suspection. The Kentucky three-peat was Jung’s 10th four-star win – William Fox-Pitt holds the record with 14 – and the German Olympic champion, who is only 34, looks to be catching up with the Briton. Just hours after his triumph on American soil Jung was catching a flight to England en route to defending his title at Badminton next weekend. A record number of spectators watched the 4* Eventing action this year at Kentucky, with 34’000 attending cross country and 24000 at the jumping finale. By Kate Green Michael Jung (GER), Maxime Livio (FRA) and Zara Tindall (GBR) hold top three slots on leaderboard Even dual Olympic champion Michael Jung admitted cross country day at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, third leg of the FEI Classics™, was a tough one with Derek di Grazia’s track posing a serious challenge. However, the German maestro is yet again in pole position on FischerRocana FST, despite finishing four seconds (1.6 time penalties) over the optimum time of 11 minutes 17 seconds and surviving a precarious moment when the brave little mare made an enormous leap into the lake. Jung, currently third in the FEI Classics™ having led the series last year, has a fence in hand to win a record third successive Kentucky on the same horse. His nearest challenger is Frenchman Maxime Livio, current leader of the FEI Classics™ after his win in Pau, who rode a masterful round to finish exactly on the optimum time on Qalao Des Mers to rise from eighth place after dressage to second. “Today was not our best ride, but we have a true partnership and kept fighting,’ said Jung. ‘FischerRocana looks very well after the finish – she is a tough girl!” Michael Jung (GER) The leaderboard has changed dramatically and a brilliant, committed ride by the sole British representative, Zara Tindall on High Kingdom, has propelled her from 16th to third place. A determined Matthew Brown, previously 19th after dressage, has leapt to fourth place on Super Socks BCF and is the highest placed American rider. Demonstrating the openness of the competition, Erin Sylvester (USA), who was only 51stafter dressage, is now 13th on Mettraise after finishing bang on the optimum time. There were 26 clear rounds from the 42 finishers and six within the optimum time. Dressage leaders Clark Montgomery (USA) and Loughan Glen lost their chance of retaining their position with a disappointing refusal at a skinny brush at fence 18a. Three other riders in contention after dressage also disappeared off the leaderboard: both Kim Severson (USA), third on Cooley Cross Border, and Jessica Phoenix (CAN), fifth on Bentley’s Best, retired after run-outs at corners and Elizabeth Halliday-Sharp (USA), fourth, parted company from Fernhill By Night at the Normandy Bank. Tomorrow’s jumping finale, which starts at 1pm local time, is sure to be a tense affair as the magnificent Michael Jung bids to make history – again. images: Rebecca Berry/FEI The leaderboard has changed dramatically and a brilliant, committed ride by the sole British representative, Zara Tindall on High Kingdom, has propelled her from 16th to third place. A determined Matthew Brown, previously 19th after dressage, has leapt to fourth place on Super Socks BCF and is the highest placed American rider. Demonstrating the openness of the competition, Erin Sylvester (USA), who was only 51stafter dressage, is now 13th on Mettraise after finishing bang on the optimum time. There were 26 clear rounds from the 42 finishers and six within the optimum time. Dressage leaders Clark Montgomery (USA) and Loughan Glen lost their chance of retaining their position with a disappointing refusal at a skinny brush at fence 18a. Three other riders in contention after dressage also disappeared off the leaderboard: both Kim Severson (USA), third on Cooley Cross Border, and Jessica Phoenix (CAN), fifth on Bentley’s Best, retired after run-outs at corners and Elizabeth Halliday-Sharp (USA), fourth, parted company from Fernhill By Night at the Normandy Bank. Tomorrow’s jumping finale, which starts at 1pm local time, is sure to be a tense affair as the magnificent Michael Jung bids to make history – again. image;(FEI/Rebecca Berry) Montgomery leads on 33.6 ahead of Germany's Jung on 37.1 American rider Clark Montgomery rode a superbly smooth dressage test on Loughan Glen to take the lead in front of his new home crowd at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event. It’s the third leg of the FEI Classics™, a series that links the world’s six major four-star events and provides valuable cash prizes to the top three in the points table.
Montgomery, who has returned to the USA from a spell based in Britain and now lives in Kentucky State, heads the 59 starters at the USA’s premier event on the excellent score of 33.6, but there’s no relaxing when defending champion Michael Jung from Germany is only 3.5 penalties behind. Jung, the dual Olympic champion and 2015-2016 FEI Classics™ leader (he is currently third in the 2016-2017 table), is going for a record third successive Kentucky victory on the same horse, gallant little mare FischerRocana FST. He has a habit of piling on pressure with faultless jumping performances and Montgomery and Loughan Glen, no strangers to outstanding success in the dressage arena, have a few blots on their cross-country record. However, the dressage leader, who describes tomorrow’s test as “beefy”, was visibly elated: “My horse felt super. This morning he was pretty tight, but he was ‘up’ which is what we wanted. He felt good in his body, good in his mind.” Clark Montgomery (USA) US rider Kim Severson, who has achieved the rare distinction of winning Kentucky three times on the same horse, Winsome Adante (albeit not in succession), is in third place on her rising star Cooley Cross Border. Speedy Frenchman Maxime Livio scored the first victory in the current FEI Classics™ series, at Pau, France, and brings that winning horse, Qalao Des Mers, for a first attempt at Kentucky. They are eighth on 44.6. Zara Tindall, the 2006 world champion, is the sole Brit; she was near the bottom of the Badminton waitlist and decided to cross the Atlantic instead with her 2012 Olympic silver medallist High Kingdom. They are currently 16th on 46.6, just 0.3 ahead of fellow traveller Tim Price (NZL) on Ringwood Sky Boy, 17th. Kentucky’s last home winner was Phillip Dutton way back in 2008; he’s in joint ninth on 44.8 with two of his three rides, Fernhill Fugitive and the 17-year-old Mr Medicott. The vastly experienced rider, a bronze medallist in Rio last year, has this to say about tomorrow’s cross-country, which starts at 10am local time: “You’ve got to keep thinking, not let the blood rush to the head and see how your horse handles the distance. It’s another great course from Derek (di Grazia, designer) and will sort everyone out.” |
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