Lexington, Ky. – After an exciting day of cross-country action from 61 CCI5*-L combinations at the 2021 Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event presented by MARS Equestrian, the leaderboard saw several changes, finishing with Oliver Townend (GBR) and Ballaghmor Class holding a slight lead over Boyd Martin (Cochranville, Pa.) and On Cue, who currently are in second place. Tim Price (NZL) and Xavier Faer round out the top three, as all eyes turn to the final phase tomorrow.
(Leslie Potter/US Equestrian)
Townend and Ballaghmor Class, winners of this event in the 2018 and 2019 editions, currently move into the stadium phase tomorrow on a score of 27.3, adding only 0.8-time faults to their dressage score following their trip around Derek di Grazia’s CCI5*-L track. Martin guided On Cue, a 15-year-old Selle Français mare owned by Christine Turner, to her first CCI5*-L cross-country completion, also adding just 0.8 time faults to their starting score of 27.0 for a 27.8.
“She’s a lovely horse. She is a French horse and has an awesome gallop and is a great jumper. This year she gave me a really great feeling at the preparation event, and you know, one thing I’ve learned watching these guys like Tim and Oliver is if you want to win, you have to take a crack at it,” said Martin of his second-place mount On Cue. He continued describing his day, which consisted of his stellar round with On Cue and two unsuccessful runs with Long Island T and Tsetserleg TSF. “I’d rather fail trying to win it than tip-toe around and obviously that worked one time today and didn’t work the other two, but that’s the sport and there’s no shame in going for it.”
Tim Price, who successfully piloted both Xavier Faer and Bango into the top 10 standings, sits just behind Martin with Xavier Faer on a score of 28.2, adding no penalties to their dressage score and guiding him to only one of three rides inside the optimum time.
Land Rover/USEF CCI5* Eventing National Championship presented by MARS Equestrian™
As the top placed U.S. pair, Martin and On Cue are currently leading the standings for the Land Rover /USEF CCI5* Eventing National Championship presented by MARS Equestrian. Despite going late in the order under increasingly rainy conditions, Elisabeth Halliday-Sharp (Lexington, Ky.) and Deniro Z, a 13-year-old KWPN gelding owned by Ocala Horse Properties, LLC, completed a masterful cross-country round today, adding only 2.8-time penalties to their score for a running total of 30.2—less than one rail behind Martin and On Cue heading into tomorrow’s show jumping.
William Coleman (Gordonsville, Va.) currently stands in third position in the national championship standings with The Conair Syndicate’s 14-year-old French Thoroughbred gelding, Tight Lines. The pair finished today with just 1.6 time penalties, giving them a total score of 33.5 and 10th place standings in the overall CCI5*-L.
The CCI5*-L concludes tomorrow with the jumping phase beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET. Visit the LRK3DE website for the latest ride times, schedule of events, and scoring.
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