There’s a leaderboard re-do at the MARS Maryland 5-star event

Could this be the year that Britain’s Oliver Townend finally wins the MARS Maryland 5-star event?

After making the podium in the first three editions of the competition, but falling short of victory, he  moved closer to taking the title for the first time with his 17-year-old partner, Ballaghmor Class. Following Saturday’s cross-country segment, he rose to first place with just 4.8 time penalties added to his dressage score of 26.5. Sunday’s show jumping finale will tell the tale for this prize that Oliver wants very, very much.

The Irishbred gray gelding Oliver calls Thomas has led six times in five-star events after cross-country, with three wins (Burghley 2017, 2023) and Kentucky (2021). If he can pull off victory in Maryland, he would become one of just three horses with more than three 5-star wins. The others are legends; Priceless (four) and La Biosthetique Sam (six).

The prospect has made Oliver emotional, bringing him to tears as he contemplated the career of his amazing partner, whom he called “a special horse.”

He noted Thomas had “a couple of niggling setbacks” in the spring, which had never happened before. So Oliver, a former world number one, knows the clock is ticking relentlessly and he must appreciate every moment that he can be center stage with his athletic partner. At the same time, he is looking ahead to competing Thomas in 2025, if all goes well.

Part of Oliver’s way to the top was paved when overnight leader Mai Baum retired after a refusal at fence 17, the oddly shaped Sawmill Slice of brush and logs. The black gelding felt like a 10-year-old in the dressage phase, rider Tamie Smith reported as she discussed his 25.3 penalty test on Friday.

But he actually is 18, and the MARS Maryland 5-star was planned to be his final competition at the sport’s highest level. His age and the taxing, undulating terrain at Fair Hill proved to be too much for this warmblood, so there was no sense in having him continue to run the last 5-star of his career.

(Interesting that in fourth place is a thoroughbred — the type of horse that was the original eventing mount when the competition format required more endurance. The pairing of Buck Davidson and Sorocaima, an ex-racehorse who was thirteenth after dressage, is now a longshot contender on 39.2 penalties.)

Mai Baum’s absence is no insurance, however, that Thomas will take the big prize at the competition, which offers a purse of $325,000. Oliver, who was second in dressage, has to watch out for fellow British subject, David Doel, whose Galileo Nieuwoed had been touted as the fastest horse in the competition, which drew 21 starters.

That wasn’t false advertising. David completed the 28-fence test in 10 minutes, 51 seconds, 24 seconds under the optimum time of 11 minutes, 15 seconds. David was the only one of the eight finishers not to incur time penalties over the final route devised by retiring course designer Ian Stark.

David, calling his horse,  “A phenomenal galloper and jumper,” noted, “It was almost a little bit embarrassing going that quick. But he just was within his stride. I never really felt like I was pushing him. I never felt like I was actually going to his limit. He definitely still felt like he had a few more gears in there.”

After rising from sixteenth place in dressage, he is less than a rail behind Oliver on a score of 34.5 penalties going into show jumping, and a mere 0.1 penalties ahead of third-place Tim Price and Falco. The New Zealander, who won Maryland with another horse in 2022, rode Falco to sixth place in the Paris Olympics.

Boyd Martin, the 2021 Maryland winner, had a Groundhog Day moment, falling at the third fence, the Locust Log Pond after Commando 3 hit the obstacle. In 2023, he fell at the third fence in a different iteration when he was riding Contessa.

After starting out with a fall Saturday morning in the 3-star that runs with the 5-star, he scratched his other horses in that competition. Following his 5-star tumble, he scratched his second mount, Olympic veteran Tsetserleg. Boyd is scheduled to ride in the 5-star at Pau, France, this coming week with his Olympic mount, Federman B.

Seven entries retired on course, while six were eliminated and two withdrew from the original field of 23 that was listed for cross-country. The small number of finishers raised questions for some, but not Oliver.

“I thought it was a brilliant track and we’re all huge fans of Ian Stark and I thought it was a very fair track,” he commented.

“But it’s a 5-star and it’s meant to be a 5-star and this is the top of the sport and it did feel like you were riding around Badminton, Burghley or Kentucky, and those events are the top of the sport and as a rider, you don’t necessarily want it to be easy.”

As he reflected on his course, Ian mused, “There were quite a few that were going really well and then silly mistakes towards the end and they didn’t complete. So the statistics are not great, and it’s not quite how I wanted to end my career.

“But I thought there was some good riding, and there was maybe some green riders, green horses that were barely ready for it,” he pointed out, adding that the “trouble” was spread around the course.

“And it’s a difficult one when your first horse (Harry Meade’s Away Cruising, who lost a shoe) doesn’t go around. It sort of makes other riders begin to question. And so maybe the greener ones weren’t quite so confident setting off.”

Ian pointed out that the course was very little changed from last year, and that in terms of those who didn’t finish, “It’s unfortunate, but it happens, sadly. The ones that did go around looked amazing. And their riders were quite happy.”

He mentioned that nearly 25 percent had clear rounds (except for time penalties), and was pleased that only one rider didn’t collect those, which testified to the appropriateness of the optimum time. (The situation looked worse than it was because of the smaller number of entries.)

What happened to those who had problems?

“For whatever reason, bad luck, younger horses, greener combinations…it wasn’t quite the result I was hoping for,” he replied.

“There’s one thing for sure,” he said with a chuckle, “nobody will talk me out of my retirement now.”

So what will the 71-year-old do in that retirement, aside from spending more time with his three grandchildren?

Turns out, it’s not really retirement. He will still help riders in the U.S., as well as continuing to ride in lower-level eventing competitions and start green horses–though in that regard, he says his family thinks “I’m nuts. I wait until they’ve all gone out, and then I back them a little bit (work with young horses).”

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