Buck Davidson and Ballynoe Castle RM (Shannon Brinkman/USEF photo)
Lexington, KY – Cross country day was an influential one at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event presented by Land Rover. Derek di Grazia’s 6500 meter, 28 obstacle cross country course caused some problems throughout the day but did not pose any issues for HSBC World Rankings Leader Andrew Nicholson (NZL) who holds the top two places on the leaderboard. Nicholson is in the lead with Quimbo after having a textbook round, adding nothing to their dressage score of 38.0. Deborah Sellar’s 10-year-old Spanish Sport Horse gelding galloped around the Kentucky Horse Park confidently in his first attempt at a CCI4* event.
“He felt very, very good. I was very, very impressed with him,” said Nicholson of Quimbo. “It’s his first time at this level so I quite wasn’t sure if he would have enough gallop to keep up the pace to the end. I was quite amazed when I got to eight minutes and told him we needed to up the pace a little bit and he was very happy to do it and he wasn’t slowing down at the finish.”
Nicholson sits a close second to himself with Calico Joe, adding no penalties to their dressage score of 40.8. He had a masterful round with Twenty Twelve in Mind’s 11-year-old English Thoroughbred gelding, easily coming in well under the optimum time of 11 minutes and 21 seconds.
“You can never have too much of a cushion going into show jumping,” quipped Nicholson of being in first and second going into the final phase. “I pretty much made the most of today and will worry about tomorrow tomorrow. For Calico Joe, [show jumping] is not his strongest phase. Quimbo is a very, very nice jumper. If I ride him half right he usually does the rest himself. So we will just worry about things tomorrow morning at the jog and worry about the show jumping after that.”
With a win tomorrow, Nicholson would win his second leg of the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing after winning the 2012 Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials and be competing against William Fox-Pitt (GBR) at the Mitsubishi Badminton Horse Trials for the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing. After winning the 2011 Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials and the 2012 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, William Fox-Pitt (GBR) is currently in the running to win the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing. After the 2012 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials was canceled due to excessive rain leading up to the event, a win next week at the 2013 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials could win Fox-Pitt, or possibly Nicholson depending on tomorrow’s outcome, the coveted title.
Buck Davidson (Unionville, PA) jumped a stellar double clear round over the demanding track to sit third with a score of 45.2 with Ballynoe Castle RM. The pair finished third at both the Red Hills CIC3* and The Fork CIC3*. Being the top placed American in the competition, Davidson cruised into the lead of the Rolex/USEF National CCI4* Eventing Championship with Cassandra Segal’s 13-year-old Irish Thoroughbred gelding.
“He’s been an amazing horse for me,” said Davidson of his longtime partner “Reggie.” “I am so fortunate to have him in my life and have the Segals who have given me such an amazing horse. He does everything I ask him, he shows up every single weekend and I am so lucky and thankful.”
For being the top American rider coming closest to the optimum time, Davidson was awarded the Land Rover Best Ride of the Day, receiving a 24 month lease of a 2013 Range Rover Evoque.
“Land Rover has been a huge supporter of American eventing and for them to come up with this is great. I am very thankful to Land Rover,” commented Davidson.
The second highest-placed American is Will Faudree (Southern Pines, NC) with Jennifer Mosing’s Pawlow. He and the 14-year-old Irish Thoroughbred gelding added 6.4 time penalties to sit in fifth place with a score of 53.6. The pair had a 15th place finish here in 2010 and hope to improve upon that performance this year.
Forty-two combinations contested the cross country phase but only 30 completed the course. Of the finishers there were 10 double clear rounds, while there were seven eliminations and 5 retirements on course. Three combinations withdrew before the start of competition Saturday.
The second horse inspection will take place Sunday at 8:30am ET and the show jumping will begin at 1:15pm ET.
Watch the live stream on the USEF Network presented by SmartPak. In addition to the broadcast, the order of go, results, and photos can be found here: http://www.usefnetwork.com/featured/Rolex3Day2013/.
For more information about the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event presented by Land Rover, visit www.rk3de.org.
Follow the 2013 Land Rover U.S. Eventing Team at http://usefnetwork.com/featured/2013Eventing.
By Kathleen Landwehr