You might have thought the 4-star Long competition at the Jersey Fresh International Three Day Event could be a rematch between Tamie Smith on En Vogue and Alyssa Phillips with Oskar, who overtook Tamie’s lead from dressage and cross-country in the show jumping phase of the 4-star Short at last month’s Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event.
Tamie Smith and En Vogue lead the 4-star Long at Jersey Fresh. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
But after today’s cross-country at the Horse Park of New Jersey, it looked like Tamie vs. Tamie. Danito, who was first after dressage, had eight time penalties over Morgan Rowsell’s course, while En Vogue collected only 2.8 time penalties.
“I couldn’t have asked them to be better, they were really amazing,” said Tamie.
“Danito is a little green and I started off a bit slower and just gave him time to get into the rhythm of the course. I was able to kick it up a couple notches throughout. If I could have come out of the box straight away like that, he could have been really close to making the time.”
En Vogue has 27.1 penalties total, while his stablemate is on 31.9. And could Boyd Martin be any closer with Luke 140? That’s mathematically impossible, because his mark is 32.
Boyd Martin is a picture of determination on Luke 140. Look at his expression! (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
The division, which is an Olympic selection trial at the event presented by B.W. Furlong and Associates, drew an amazing 55 starters. It ends this afternoon with show jumping.
But don’t count out Phillip Dutton on Sea of Clouds who made a meteoric rise after dressage, where he was tied for 29th, when he finished 14 seconds under the optimum time of 10 minutes on cross-country. Now Phillip is tied with Karl Slezak on 33.6 in fourth place. Anyone watching Phillip could see he was really booking it. He was annoyed that a glitch in the start box for the Kentucky 5-star left him with 5.2 time penalties on Z, putting his eighth, so at Jersey he made sure nothing like that would happen again.
Phillip Dutton poured on the speed with Sea of Clouds to move up 25 places after cross-country at Jersey Fresh. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
Tamie also leads the 3-star Long at Jersey with Solaguayre California (26.7) while Phillip is right behind her on Quasi Cool with 27.4.
The finals of that division will also play out tomorrow, but two sections wrapped up today. The 4-star Short went to Elisabeth Halliday Sharp and Cooley Moonshine, (32.8), a 9-year-old in his first 4-star season, with Boyd one penalty behind on Long Island T, who rerouted after a cross-country fall in the 5-star at Kentucky.
Liz Halliday-Sharp and Cooley Moonshine won the 4-star S. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
The 3-star Short went to Cosby Green on Buck Davidson’s former rider, Copper Beach (33.2).
Check back to this website tomorrow for details on the competitions that are doing their show jumping on Mother’s Day.
Spectators are welcome at the Horse Park, with tickets available at the gate. There was a great crowd today–how refreshing to see people enjoying the outdoors, tailgating and spending time with friends. Kentucky was not allowed to have fans attend under U.S. Equestrian Federation Covid protocols, and it left a big hole in the proceedings.
Local New Jersey favorite Holly Payne Caravella was fourth in the 4-star Short with CharmKing. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
Morgan was understandably happy with the huge entry, especially since the competition was cancelled last year because of Covid.
“People trust us with their valuable horses and their horses that they potentially are trying to get ready for Tokyo,” said Morgan.
“You couldn’t ask for anything more. The footing is great and the rain didn’t come and everybody’s riding well and the frangible pins are keeping people out of trouble. We’ve got some vendors, a lot of parking spots are full, that’s what we like to see. It sets us up for next year.”
