Lexington, Ky., –  April 28, 2015 - With her only penalties of the event being the low score she earned in the dressage ring, Fischerrocana FST and Michael Jung of Germany won the 2015 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by Land Rover. Their score of 39.3 bested Tim Price of New Zealand on Wesko (40.3) and Jung on his second mount, La Biosthetique Sam FBW (44.7).

 

Fischerrocana, 10, show jumped first of the three top-placed horses, and she put the pressure on her rivals by completing an absolutely faultless round. When Jung returned 14 horses later on Sam, 15, he lowered fences 8C and 10. Still, Price had to be perfect to claim the $100,000 winner’s prize but Wesko, the next starter, also lowered fence 10, and Price settled for second place and $44,000. Jung earned another $36,000 for third place.

This was the 35^th consecutive year that Rolex Watch USA has sponsored the Kentucky Three-Day Event, the longest corporate sponsorship in horse sports. Jung returned to Germany wearing the Rolex watch that always goes to the Event’s winner.

 

With more than 23,000 fans screaming and the difference between first and second places being $56,000, Price, 36, said he tried not to think about what was on the line as he cantered toward the start of the show jumping course designed by Richard Jeffery.

 

“You just kind of put that to one side and think of what you want to concentrate on in the ring. My horse is really good in the ring, and I think the crowd really did help me,” said Price, 36. “I came down after the triple bar [fence 9] and rode a slightly bad line to fence 10, which I think was about the same as Michael did.”
Jung, 32, said that the he felt more pressure from himself than from the atmosphere. But he thought he was too relaxed on Sam.

“I think you always have pressure on yourself whenever you compete. This is why you train at home and why you’re always thinking about how you can do better,” he said. “After my first round I was maybe a little bit more relaxed, but then I was a little bit too fast to the triple combination. Fischerrocana needs more gallop and more speed to the fences, and I didn’t concentrate enough on how to ride Sam, because he wasn’t the only horse I was riding here.”

After the completion of dressage, Jung, on Sam, and Price were tied for the lead on 36.3 penalties, with Fischerrocana in fourth (39.3). Defending champion William Fox-Pitt of Great Britain, on Bay My Hero, was third (38.5). The closeness at the top made Saturday’s cross-country phase was no less dramatic than the show jumping.

 

With thunderstorms and possible tornadoes predicted for Saturday afternoon, the ground jury (Angela Tucker, Wayne Quarles and Ernst Topp) and technical delegate Tom Ryckewaert met on Friday with Lee Carter and Vanessa Coleman of Equestrian Events Inc. to discuss schedule changes. They decided to move up the start time by 15 minutes and to shorten the interval between horses from 5 to 3 minutes, reducing the length of the competition by more than two hours. They hoped to conclude the competition before the storms struck the Lexington area.

 

The plan succeeded, although rain fell throughout much of the day. Riders said that although the ground was slippery or deep in places, the footing remained firm before and after the jumps. And at no time was the competition halted because of weather.

 

Jung began the day by guiding Fischerrocana to a faultless round. Then Price did the same with Wesko, despite being held on course because a rider ahead of him had fallen. And then, just before the end of the day, Jung galloped through the finish 1 second slow with Sam, breaking the tie he’d had with Price. He’d ridden aggressively around the course, and he couldn’t say where he’d fallen behind the optimum time of 11:06.

 

 

Jung didn’t blame the footing for falling out of the lead, though. “OK, yes, I’m a little bit sad about the 1 second, but the ground was not bad. Sam started well and jumped clear. The ground was very well prepared, and he jumped and galloped well,” he said.

Fox-Pitt and Bay My Hero, riding just before Jung and Sam, slogged home 21 seconds slow (8.4 time penalties), to drop to fourth. “I’m delighted with him,” said Fox-Pitt.

 

Price said he’d been worried about the weather since Friday afternoon. “I opened the curtains this morning and gingerly looked out,” he admitted. “It was always going to be a track of riding well and using your intuition all the way around. I just went out and trusted my horse and tried to give him a good trip between the fences. I had a great round, really.”

 

All told, 71 horses started, with 46 finishing. 30 jumped clear, with six also finishing with no time faults. 15 horses were eliminated and 10 retired.

 

“There are a lot of people that make this thing work, and on a day like this they really did make it work,” said cross-country course designer Derek di Grazia, who created a redesigned track with numerous new questions.

 

“My goal was to do something different and to give the riders new things to look at. We built quite a few new jumps and sent the horses and riders in a new way. These guys are great riders, and they went out there and did what they needed to do,” he added.

 

The happiest American rider on Saturday afternoon was Will Coleman, who was standing eighth on Obos O’Reilly. That’s because-by finishing 1 second under the optimum time with no penalties-Coleman won the Land Rover Best Ride of the Day Award. The prize is a free two-year lease on a 2015 Land Rover Discovery Sport.

 

Coleman, 32, of Gordonsville, Va., said, “This may be the only time I get to sit in the driver’s seat, because I believe my wife, Katie, will drive it the most. I’ll probably be lucky if I get to sit in it at all,” he added with a smile.

 

 

By placing fifth (54.1), Phillip Dutton and Fernhill Cubalawn won the  Rolex U.S. Equestrian Federation CCI4* Championship. It was Dutton’s fourth victory in this championship.

Dutton got there with a faultless show jumping round on Fernhill Cubalawn, passing Coleman, on Obos O’Reiily, and Boyd Martin, on Master Frisky, after they lowered rails, to finish sixth and seventh. Dutton also finished ninth on Fernhill Fugitive.

 

“Yes, I’m excited about their future,” said Dutton of his two top-10 horses. “They’re both young-ish horses. They both improved and matured this weekend.”

 

Dutton withdrew Mighty Nice, who had been standing seventh after cross-country, on Sunday morning because of a stifle injury.

 

Jung had only ridden at the Kentucky Horse Park once before, when he won the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games gold medal on Sam. He and Sam then won the Olympics two years later, but Sam suffered a slight injury prior to the 2014 World Equestrian Games in France, so he rode Fischerrocana to the individual silver medal and team gold medal there. But he said that Fischerrocana hasn’t replaced Sam as his No. 1 horse.

 

“Sam is a good friend. I think no horse is better than him. Sam is my favorite. With Sam, I win every title. He’s a very special horse,” Jung said. “But Fischerrocana is also a top horse. She will do everything great and correct. She knows the job she has to do. Every competition gets easier with her, and I think that’s really special.”

 

Price had never competed at Rolex Kentucky before, and when he and Jung were asked if they would return, Price quickly answered that he certainly would and jokingly added that Jung would not.

 

Jung smiled at Price and said the prize money he’d won would encourage him to fly to Kentucky again. He added, “The flight is very expensive, and I think we are very nearly on zero right now. But I really enjoy the competition here in Kentucky and hope to return if we can arrange it.”

 

The combined team of Germany, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland won the Dubarry Nations Team Challenge, scoring 145.6 penalties. The USA was second (250.2), with Great Britain third (1,103.7) and Canada fourth (2,131.9).

 

Sunday’s paid attendance was 23,552, bringing the weekend total to 75,533. Despite the rain-soaked day, Saturday’s attendance was 31, 856. Friday’s attendance was 13,065, and Thursday’s was 7,230.

 

“Rolex Kentucky” is one of the world’s most prestigious equestrian competitions. It is one of only six Four-Star Three-Day Events in the world and the only one in the Western Hemisphere. It is a part of the FEI Classics Series, which unites the top four-star Eventing competitions from around the world. It also gives competitors a shot at the $350,000 Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing, which is awarded to any rider who wins the Rolex Kentucky, Mitsubishi Motors Badminton and Land Rover Burghley Four-Star Events in succession.

 

Horses and Hope, a breast cancer initiative of the Office of Kentucky’s First Lady and the Kentucky Cancer Program (KCP), is the Official Charity of the 2015 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event Presented by Land Rover and will be the recipient of the proceeds from the Maker’s Mark Commemorative Bottle Auction and Reception.

 

Equestrian Events, Inc. has a long history of making financial contributions to charities that support local equine interests and serve the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The mission of Horses and Hope is to work alongside the state’s equine industry to provide breast cancer awareness, education, screenings, and treatment referrals. Since the program was founded in 2008, Horses and Hope has reached nearly 1 million race track and horse show attendees, and educated nearly 16,000 equine employees. The program has screened nearly 700 workers and detected breast cancer in three individuals who have received treatment. For more information about Horses and Hope or how to donate to this very worthwhile charity, please visit www.horsesandhope.org.

 

Equestrian Events, Inc. is a non-profit charitable Kentucky corporation that was established initially to produce the 1978 World Three-Day Event Championships at the Kentucky Horse Park. Following the success of those championships, EEI established an annual event that evolved into the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event Presented by Land Rover.

 

Coverage of America’s only Four Star Event includes an NBC broadcast – the Rolex Equestrian Championships presented by Land Rover – which will air on Sunday, May 3 at 12:30 pm EDT. All four days of the competition were streamed online LIVE on USEFNetwork.com, presented by SmartPak and on www.feitv.org.

 

For more information on the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by Land Rover, please visit the Rolex Kentucky website at www.RK3DE.org or call (859) 233-2362.

This series, first piloted in 2012, was designed to aid national coaches in preparing their championship squads by providing them with the opportunity to give team experience to a wider selection of riders. Last year, the concept was enthusiastically embraced by 15 nations.

The 2015 season comprises eight FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing competitions across eight countries: France, Ireland, Great Britain, Poland, Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands. They are all run at CIC3* level, apart from the last event of the series in  Boekelo (NED), which is a CCI3*. Under the rules for 2015, there has to be a minimum of three teams starting the Dressage phase.

Germany, the reigning Olympic, World and European team Eventing champions, have topped the leaderboard of this series twice in three years, and last season enjoyed an extraordinary winning run across five events: Strzegom (POL), Aachen (GER), Malmö (SWE), Montelibretti (ITA) and Waregem (BEL).

Great Britain, the champions in 2013 and a close second last year, and France, third three years consecutively, have both been equally committed, and the French will be very hard to beat on home ground this weekend where the twisting tracks of the forest at Fontainebleau always prove a technical challenge.

The New Zealanders were so strong last year that they finished fourth on the leaderboard on the strength of only three appearances, two of which were winning ones, and Ireland, the Netherlands and Italy featured strongly as well.

“We are very encouraged by the way riders and team managers have entered into the spirit of the FEI Nations Cup Eventing,” said Catrin Norinder, FEI Director, Eventing & Olympic.

“The series has provided a chance for up-and-coming riders to attract the attention of their team selectors and for some of them it has clearly provided valuable experience before tackling their first championships.

“Every year, the final event of the series has become more and more exciting and there have been some hotly contested competitions on the way. We fully expect 2015 will be an equally competitive series.”

Four nations line up for the opener at Fontainebleau this weekend: France, Australia, with a trio including Chris Burton on his Adelaide CCI4* winner TS Jamaimo, Great Britain, whose squad includes Francis Whittington on the 2014 Blenheim CCI3* winner Easy Target, and the Netherlands, fielding some of the riders from their triumphant bronze medal effort at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ 2014.

Defending FEI World Cup™ Vaulting and former world champion Nicolas Andreani (FRA), known as “Nico” to his many fans, also stormed to male individual victory in Paris, where a total of 18 athletes from seven countries battled it out.

Joanne Eccles displayed her full range of style and skill on WH Bentley, lunged by her father John Eccles, earning an outstanding 8,828 points, which gave her 15 World Cup points as she targets the Final next year.

This was her first international competition since securing her second consecutive world title at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ 2014 this summer. Before heading to Paris, Eccles had said she wanted to show “how amazing vaulting is”, explaining “when spectators enjoy my performances I enjoy them even more.” In Paris, she definitely reached her goal, impressing the audience with two clear and extremely difficult freestyles, including performing her unique one-handed handstand, which has become her trademark this season.

Individual vaulters now have an additional 20 seconds to impress the judges following a recent rule change to extend the one-minute routines. Eccles, the 25-year-old dentist from Scotland, said of these precious extra seconds: “It allows more time to really engage the audience and to truly feel the performance. It was a great competition in Paris as always, and the arena and organisation were brilliant for us and the horses.”

Corinna Knauf (GER) finished second with Echt Stark and her sister and lunger Alexandra Knauf, with Hannah Eccles (GBR) securing third on WH Bentley also lunged by her father John Eccles.

Nicolas Andreani secured the male individual spot 705 points clear of his nearest rival. His classy performance on Just A Kiss with Marina Joosten Dupon, who has been his lunger and coach since he started vaulting as a child, earned him 8,933 points. “Thanks everyone for your great support!”, said Andreani to his loyal fans, who came in droves to cheer him on in Paris.

Lukas Klouda (CZE) finished second with Echt Stark and his sister and lunger Petra Cinerova, with Lukas Heppler (SUI) also collecting vital FEI World Cup™ Vaulting points with third place on Waimar CH lunged by Barbara Zürcher.

The Pas-de-Deux competition in Paris ended with the same duel as last year, but this time Germany’s Pia Engelberty and Torben Jacobs on Danny Boy lunged by Patric Looser were denied the number one slot by Joanne and Hannah Eccles, who finished with a 285-point lead (8,828). Gera Marie Grün and Justin van Gerven (GER), training partners of Engelberty and Jacobs, finished third.

A total of 16 vaulters, including the reigning FEI World Cup™ Vaulting champion Anna Cavallaro (ITA), will now head to the third qualifier of this series at the spectacular Salzburg Arena Messezentrum (AUT), which has played host to the likes of Bryan Adams, Pink, Carlos Santana and Bob Dylan.

                                                                                                                        

Tune in to FEI World Cup™ Vaulting in Salzburg live on FEI TV (www.feitv.org) on 13 December (13.00 local time).

Ireland’s Olympic Bronze Medallist Cian O Connor riding Aramis 573, were crowned 2014 Connolly’s RED MILLS 7 & 8 year old  International champions, following three thrilling competitions at the Discover Ireland Dublin Horse Show.

Written by Brian Hennessy

A world class line up which included current world cup champion Daniel Duesser from Germany, Swedish super-star Malin Baryard Johnsson and current world number one Scott Brash from Great Britain, joined a list of Ireland’s top riders with their 7 & 8 year old horses, in a competition which began with two qualifying rounds on Wednesday and Friday at the RDS, before Sunday’s grand final in the main arena, just before the Longines Grand Prix of Ireland.

USA based Irish rider Darragh Kenny and Chin Quidam VDL, landed both Wednesday’s opening speed class and Friday’s second qualifying round of the Connolly’s RED MILLS International 7 & 8 year old competition, however Sunday’s final in the RDS saw Meath based Cian O Connor lift The “Corry” Perpetual Challenge Trophy, after a brilliant performance with the eight year old stallion Aramis 573.

Ten of the 22 starters made it into the jump-off, with riders from six different nations taking their chances against the clock, but at the finish it was Cian O Connor who grabbed the Connolly’s RED MILLS sponsored winners prize with Aramis 573, who is by the stallion Askari out of a dam by Campione.

Speaking afterwards, Cian O Connor spoke about his winning mount, who came to him earlier this year having previously competed in Austria,

“This was only my second show with this horse, I have only had him a few months. He is still a bit green but is a very fast horse, he has won a lot already as a 5, 6 and 7 year-old in Austria before I got him. His rideability needs to improve a bit but he has a super technique and I don’t think there is a course he can’t jump and if he does make it to the highest level at least he now has already been in this arena at the RDS”.

Cian O Connor went on to praise the sponsors saying,

 “It is a very good class and a lot of credit must go to the sponsors Connolly’s RED MILLS, it is great to see the Irish horses that qualified to get here, compete against some of the best 7 & 8 year old horses in the world”.

Darragh Kenny was again among the prizes in the final, taking runner up spot with another stallion Chin Quidam VDL, while Nicola Fitzgibbon made sure Ireland filled the top three places, coming home in third with the Irish Sport Horse Shantonagh.

British Aga Khan team member Joe Clee slotted into fourth with Gamko S, while Belgian rider Peter Devos finished fifth with Guicci DV.

The top ranked rider in the world, Scott Brash had to settle for sixth place in the Connolly’s RED MILS final with the highest placed mare in the class Hello M’Lady, while Tipperary’s Greg Broderick was the next best placed Irish rider finishing ninth with Javas Keltic Mist.

1. Cian O Connor(IRL)/Aramis 573 0/0 41.85

2. Darragh Kenny(IRL)/Chin Quidam VDL 0/0 42.31

3  Nicola Fitzgibbon(IRL)/Shantonagh(ISH) 0/0 44.27

4. Joe Clee(GBR)/Gamko S 0/0 45.21

5. Pieter Devos(BEL)/Guicci DV 0/0 46.04

6. Scott Brash(GBR)/Hello M’Lady