Mary King (GBR) today, Sunday 1st May 2011, held her nerve, and her overnight lead, to finish in first and second position after the final Show Jumping phase at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, in Lexington.
William Fox-Pitt riding Neuf Des Coeurs finished in 4th position and Oliver Townend riding ODT Sonas Rovatio was 6th, with both riding clear rounds in the Show Jumping.
Quotes from Mary King/Kings Temptress: “I was much too excited to get much sleep last night – I ended up watching a film at 2am in the morning! I was fairly calm today, I always feel that with three day events that yesterday is the big day, you want to get through it and your horses to be well, and today whatever will be will be – you just have to go in there, try and keep calm, ride each fence and try and forget about all the crowds around, and you sort of feel whatever’s going to happen is going to happen and hope they are going to pick up their feet and that it all works out!”
Final Standings:
1. Mary King (GBR) riding Kings Tempress, 47.7
2. Mary King (GBR) riding Fernhill Urco, 49.7
3. Sinead Halpin (USA) riding Manoir de Carneville, 53.1
4. William Fox-Pitt (GBR) riding Neuf Des Coeurs, 54.0
5. Clayton Fredericks (AUS) riding Be My Guest, 57.0
6. Oliver Townend (GBR) riding ODT Sonas Rovatio, 58.2
7. Jessica Phoenix (CAN) riding Exponential, 60.0
8. Hannah Sue Burnett (USA) riding St Barths, 61.3
9. Boyd Martin (USA) riding Remington XXV, 61.4
10. Rebecca Howard (CAN) riding Riddle Master, 68.5
Mark Todd (NZL) riding Grass Valley, withdrew before the Show Jumping.
Further news and details are available on www.rk3de.org.
After winning the 2011 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials on NZB Land Vision earlier this week, Mark Todd entered ‘Rolex’ as the live contender for the coveted Rolex Grand Slam title. With one of three legs of the Rolex Grand Slam complete, Todd had to win at both the 2011 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event and the 2011 Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, in order to become only the second rider, after Pippa Funnell, to scoop the $350,000 Rolex Grand Slam for winning the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials, the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, and the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, all in succession. So far the Rolex Grand Slam feat has only been achieved by Pippa Funnell, who won all three competitions in 2003 on two different horses.
