Top eventer is number one at Fair Hill

The world’s number one-ranked eventer, Tim Price, shuffled the deck today at the MARS Maryland 5-star at Fair Hill, and the Joker came out on top.

Joker is the barn name of Coup de Coeur Dudevin, a special horse who was up to the challenges of his first 5-star over a demanding course designed by former British team rider Ian Stark.

After Friday’s dressage, Joker was second to C’est la Vie 135, ridden by Woods Baughman. There were only 0.2 penalties between them, but the gap widened when Woods had a run-out this afternoon at a brush fence, the third element at the Mars Sustainability Bay complex. The combination was the 24^th of 29 obstacles. That and 0.8 penalties for exceeding the 11 minute, 30-second time allowed for a course of nearly four miles, put Woods out of contention in 19^th place.

It was especially hard luck for Woods after 40 penalties at the Kentucky 5-star and problems at England’s Burghley in September that prompted him to drop out and re-route to Fair Hill

Meanwhile, Tim had an issue of his own with Joker at the giant crab that was the first element at the bay.

“I was a little bit nervous. Is it the right thing to bring a horse half-way across the world that lacks experience?” Tim mused.

“It kind of puts it all on the line, a lot of investment from the owner and from ourselves,” he said.

“But I always believed in the horse and today was the perfect occasion for him, with good conditions, a great course that I could just go and try and give him a good education while being competitive. He was exceptional, really jumped beautifully.”

Nowhere was that more evident than at the crab drop, where Joker “grew another leg and used his own initiative and made a much better decision than me to get the job done,” Tim pointed out. (See our feature photo at the top of the page to understand what Tim was talking about.)

Nine minutes in, Joker “was still able to have the presence of mind to make a good decision and stay upright on his feet and keep thinking forward and ahead of himself,” observed Tim.

“It’s vindicated all the reasons I thought this (coming to Fair Hill) was a good decision.”

Right behind Tim’s score of  27.4 penalties is Tamie Smith, a member of the U.S. silver medal team at last month’s world championships, where Tim won team and individual bronze medals. Tamie is 2 penalties back of Tim. She was aboard Danito, another first-time 5-star horse.

And Britain’s Oliver Townend, number three in the world, completed the top three with As Is, also a first-time 5-star horse. Like the others in the triumvirate, he remains on his dressage score, which is 29.9 penalties. There is little room between the contenders, which will make this afternoon’s show jumping finale a real test of nerve and skill.

Asked about his feelings on how things went along his course, Ian said, “What’s made my day is the fact that these two (Tim and Tamie) along with Oliver Townend are riding first-time 5-star horses and the horses are incredibly lucky to have three of the best riders in the world.

“They were magnificent how they coped with the young horses and helped them and encouraged them. It was thrilling to watch.”

He added, “And I’m kind of expecting to get a bit of abuse with so many inside the time, for me it was perfect footing, some great riding; some bold and fast and brave riding. I would much rather see 10 get inside the time (actually it was 14) rather than five on the floor.”

The course looked beautiful on a sparkling day, perfect eventing weather. One of the more unusual aspects of the route was the presence of dinosaurs. Every day, Ian would pass a garden center down the street from Fair Hill that featured models of dinosaurs, so he asked to have some delivered for course decoratoin. Voila, Stegosaurus and Diplodocus.

In the 3-star, which ran with the 5-star, Hannah Sue (Burnett) Hollberg kept her lead from dressage on Capitol HIM, not that it was easy.

“He’s got one or two speeds rather than being a really quick, nippy horse. To ride quick, I had to be very accurate and wasn’t completely, but he made up for it. He was great,” said Hannah Sue.

She stands on her dressage score of 26 penalties, 0.4 ahead of Elisa Wallace and Renkum Corsair, whilc Fernhill Zorro is close on 26.6 with Cassie Sanger up.

Hannah Sue was also aboard her old reliable Harbour Pilot, in his twelfth and last 5-star start as he heads for a different life at age 19. He stands eighth, finishing five minutes over the optimum time.

What lies ahead for him? He’s Capitol HIM’s best buddy, so they’ll be together for the immediate future, and Hannah Sue hopes she can find someone to ride (and handle) him at a lower level.