Eventing World Champion Yasmin Ingham is leading the 5-star at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event with Banzai du Loir after the first day of dressage, seeking to improve on her 2022 second-place finish.
But despite a professional performance that merited a 26-penalty score, Yasmin didn’t have center stage to herself at the Kentucky Horse Park on Thursday.
Yasmin Ingham waves to her fans after her ride. (Photo © 2024 by Nancy Jaffer)
It’s a very unusual edition of the event, with the Cosequin® Lexington 4-star Short getting nearly equal billing with the 5-star, the traditional feature that is one of only seven competitions in the world with that top rating.
Normally, you’d expect Will Coleman to be competing in the 5-star with Off the Record, his Aachen winner from 2021. But that horse is in the 4-star with Will’s newer mount, Diabolo. Halfway through the competition, which resumes on Friday, Off the Record is third with 30.1 penalties and Diabolo is second on 29.9, 0.1 behind the leader, Boyd Martin on Commando 3.
The reason for extra attention on the 4-star? The Paris Olympics are on the horizon.
“I think everybody has a little bit of a different approach,” Will mused, “both in terms of how they want to put themselves forward for selection, whether they feel like they’re going to make a stronger case for themselves doing the 5-star versus the 4-star.
“In my situation, Off the Record is an older horse. If he was going to be asked to go to Paris, I think doing the 5-star here and doing a championship in July would be a lot for him.”
While Diabolo is “working toward his first 5-star at Lumuhlen (Germany), Will’s third entry, Chin Tonic, has been withdrawn due to a carpal sheath issue.
“As always, you listen to your horse and try to make the best decision based on your horse and what’s going to make him be at his best,” commented Will.
“The selection stuff, that’s out of our hands and it’s not even worth putting too much thought in.”
(Just so you know, when I talked to U.S. chef d’equipe Bobby Costello the other day, he was really optimistic about the team and seems to feel ready.)
“I wish the Olympics would be in two weeks,” he told me.
Boyd, meanwhile, wasn’t interested in speaking about his Olympic prospects.
“I’ve tried to not even think about the Olympics,” said Boyd, who has been to three Olympics already.
“You don’t get to the Olympics unless you have a great performance here. It’s all about doing a great job this week, making sure the horses perform well and they’re happy and healthy. Hopefully, one of these horses can go with the team. But at the moment, we’ve got a mission ahead of us here at Kentucky. I’ve got three good horses and they’re in good shape and we really rock.”
He will ride Fedarman B in the 4-star Friday morning and On Cue in the 5-star that afternoon.
Since Yasmin obviously is a candidate for the British Olympic team, I mentioned to her how some of the U.S. riders chose to do the 4-star and asked why she was so set on the 5-star.
Banzai du Loir takes to the air with Yasmin Ingham. (Photo © 2024 by Nancy Jaffer)
“I feel like between myself and my team, my owners, that we chose this route, we thought it was better for the horse and the preparation for the second half of the season of what we had planned.”
Of course, the Olympics is on their radar.
“It’s been a dream of mine since I was very young. But equally there are lots of other exciting events that are in the second half of the season I would also look forward to if that didn’t happen.”
Her friend, Kirsty Chabert, stands second with Classic VI on 31 penalties, 0.1 ahead of Germany’s Malin Hansen-Hotopp on Carlitos Quidditch K (what a name!)
Kirsty said of her 15-year-old Anglo European mare “hopefully she’s a really nice bottle of red wine and just keeps maturing with age.”
Malin recalled that before she decided to buy her gray Holsteiner from a friend, he was “really grumpy, bucking all the time…was not so easy but he just did a great job when he was jumping.” That’s always a selling point for a horse purchase.
Calvin Bockmann, who rides in the uniform of the German army, led the 5-star after the first group of riders had gone, and wound up at the end of the day as a very close fourth with The Phantom of the Opera, marked at 31.4 penalties. The 22-year-old had watched Kentucky on television for years and is thrilled to be in the competition.
Calvin Bockmann and The Phantom of the Opera. (Photo © 2024 by Nancy Jaffer)
Dressage isn’t Phantom’s favorite phase, and he often “got a little nervous at some point.”
But not this time.
“That’s why I’m even more proud of him for performing so well here. The arena is not easy with the cars and the big TV camera,” said the very personable Calvin.
He considers Kentucky the type of competition “you need to go to once in your life.” Calvin was a bit starstruck when he arrived, saing it took him three days “to realize where I am.”
He added, “Being here now is quite unreal. And to be in the lead after the first few riders is like amazing.”
The highest-placed U.S. rider in the 5-star is Hannah Sue Hollberg with Capital H.I.M., sixth on 33 penalties.
“I’m excited. I love this horse very much and I love his owner (Christa Schmidt) and Ms. (Jacqueline) Mars, her mother. It’s just a really special thing for me to be here,” she said.
As she left the arena, she gave a high-five to the Pony Clubber who was manning the ring entrance.
Hannah Sue and the Pony Clubber. (Photo © 2024 by Nancy Jaffer)
When I asked if she, like some of the other riders had considered the 4-star instead of the 5, she retorted, “No way. I don’t follow trends.”
For those who are interested, Hannah Sue is planning to return to the Essex Horse Trials in New Jersey June 1-2, where she was the big winner last year with this horse.
Cross-country course designer Derek di Grazia gave a tour of his beautifully built route on Thursday. He’s been working on it since June, and most of the riders think the difficulty quotient is quite high.
“First of all, we changed the direction of it and many of the features come up at a different time in the course and obviously all the feature have been changed, the combinations,” he explained.
Derek di Grazia on the cross-country course he designed. (Photo © 2024 by Nancy Jaffer)
“So it certainly is much different than it was last year, or in previous years,” Derek noted.
“The technicality is there, that are different exercises for them to do. I think the time will not be easy to get. The thing that’s good for them is that the ground is quite good, so I think the ground will ride quite quick and fast. That will be a benefit. The other thing that could come into play, I think, it will be a little warmer on Saturday.”
Click here for the 5-star results
Click here for the 4-star results