The Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event has a repeat winner

Boyd Martin and Tsetserleg. (Photo © 2019 by Nancy Jaffer)Boyd Martin didn’t see Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event defending champ Oliver Townend’s ride in the final round of today’s stadium jumping finale.

After all, Boyd already had done everything he could following a fault-free trip aboard Tsetserleg at the Kentucky Horse Park.

He knew he had at least clinched second place on 27.9 penalties total for the three phases of the event. Going into the segment, he had been 2.6 penalties behind Oli, but a rail from the leader would have given Boyd the win.

Even so, he rode Tsetserleg away from the stadium after his round because he didn’t need to see what Oli would do on Cooley Master Class; he thought he already knew.

“I had a feeling he’d jump clear,” Boyd said.

“That horse is such a good jumper. In the warm-up, he was jumping unreal, so I sort of figured… Anyone can have an unlucky rail, but he looked pretty confident to me.”

And he was right. The British rider retained his crown. Oli showed the skill that has made him the world’s number one eventer as he cruised around the Richard Jeffery-designed course before a crowd of 21,047 on a frigid afternoon in Lexington.

But once he went through the finish line, Oli lay on his horse’s neck, putting his head down in relief while he let the tension drain out.

As he noted, “The horse has had a checkered career and we’ve finally got him on top form. We’ve always believed in the horse, and it’s thanks to everybody at home putting in a huge team effort. It was just my job to push the buttons at the right point in time. I couldn’t be more proud of the horse and the whole team.”

The victory came with a $130,000 check and a brand new Land Rover. Last year, Oli had torn around the ring when he got in the driver’s seat, so this time, the organizers took the precaution of providing a driver. But you can’t keep a good man down, so Oli stood on the seat and stuck his upper body out the sun roof so he could wave to the crowd.

Boyd could take consolation in the fact that as the highest-placed U.S. rider, he was the national 5-star champion, winning the Haller Trophy from the U.S. Equestrian Federation and the Pinnacle trophy from the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation.

“This year he has come out blazing,” Boyd said of Tsetserleg, noting their partnership is working now, although it’s taken a while, as it usually does with horses. Actually, the way “Thomas” warmed up didn’t give him the utmost confidence. But the black Trakehner was at his best once he entered the stadium.

“I do have to say, I thin

k he loves a bit of atmosphere and the crowd,” Boyd noted.

“He tapped the first fence a bit and I thought, ‘Oh crap, this is going to be a long round,’ but at the second fence, he really tried, and then I thought, ‘Oh, I’ve got a shot here.’ ’’ Once he got through the first double on course, 4A and B, he thought he was going to be fine. And he was.

If Boyd, a two-time Olympian for America, had won, he would have been the first U.S. rider to take the Kentucky competition since his friend, Phillip Dutton, did it in 2008.

Never one to dwell on what might have been, Boyd already is looking ahead. “Next time,” he told me, with his characteristic big smile. And likely there will be a next time, as Oli said he wants to come back in 2020 and try for a three-peat in the Western Hemisphere’s only 5-star event.

Perhaps the one who lost the most was New Zealand’s Tim Price, who had been third after cross-country. He kept his placing following a fault-free trip on Xavier Faer (30.9 penalties), but lost a chance to pursue the $350,000 Rolex Grand Slam. Having won Britain’s Burghley 5-star last year, if he had been first at Kentucky and then first again next week at Britain’s other 5-star, Badminton, he would have collected the elusive prize that only two other riders in its history have been able to capture.

At this point, though, Tim is just happy his horse has overcome health problems and is back in form. In 2017, while at his breeder’s farm on R&R, Xavier Faer’s pony pal kicked him in the forearm. There was a wound that caregivers tended, and the horse was kept quiet to see what would develop. Sure enough, two days later, X-rays showed a hairline fracture. The horse had to be kept in a stall on crossties for several months so he wouldn’t lie down and stress the bone.

“But he came through,” said Tim, and you could say the same about the way he jumped today, despite being a rather spooky fellow.

“Liverpools? He takes a real special liking to, or disliking to, whatever you want to call it and the whole middle of the arena was like that, an ocean of water trays and liverpools today so that was something he needed to overcome,” Tim observed.

“He jumped beautiful. He’s just a lovely big, scopey honest horse and I really enjoy riding a horse like him.”.

A total of 73,049 attended the event, presented by Mars Equestrian, which is billed as “the best weekend all year.” Fans ignore harsh weather like what we experienced today, and love getting up early to attend the horse inspection, which was quite uneventful this morning, with all 31 starters passing. They just want to be part of it.

The ones who stay through the long awards ceremony really get into it when the winner does his two-round victory gallop. Some riders just go through the motions on their honor round, but you can see Oli enjoys it.

Looking at the scoreboard, the top five all were fault-free in the jumping. Fourth place went to another Brit, Piggy French on Quarrycrest Echo (33.5 penalties) while the USA’s Doug Payne was fifth with Vandiver (35.9). Doug is a hard worker who is finally getting the results he deserves. Also fault-free was Erin Sylvester on Paddy the Caddy, who had an unfortunate refusal at the final brush at the Head of the Lake yesterday. Without those 20 penalties, she would have been sixth.

Leslie Law, the 2004 individual Olympic gold medalist for Britain who is now a U.S. coach, left the rails in place with the promising Voltaire de Tre, who was 10th, while Hannah Sue Burnett finished 11th with a perfect trip on the veteran Harbour Pilot.

Will Coleman on the often-tense Tight Lines was clear as well, winding up 13^th on the French-bred thoroughbred he rode in the FEI World Equestrian Games last year.