Phillip Dutton gave his competitors a goal to aim for right at the start of the Fair Hill CCI*** in Elkton, Md., this morning. He’s seeking to win the event for the third time, riding three horses, and he scored 49.4 with the first horse in the ring, Connaught, taking a lead that no one could overcome.
Michael Pollard and Karen O’Connor tried, though, scoring 50.0 and 50.2 penalties to grab second and third places. Pollard rode S.S. Jett, who finished fifth in the Foxhall Cup CCI*** (Ga.) in April, to a performance that was steady but without a lot of expression. Pollard, of Chatsworth, Ga., and the chestnut gelding ended with an excellent final halt/salute that scored 7, 8 and 8 from the judges.
O’Connor’s ride on Grand Slam, the Fair Hill winner in 2003, was very similar, and two of the three judges preferred Grand Slam to S.S. Jett. Wayne Quarles, at H, actually liked Grand Slam best of all today, giving him 67.20 percent, to 66.0 for both Connaught and S.S. Jett. Jo Young of Canada, at B, assessed Connaught and Grand Slam the same (68.4%), and gave the same score to Mark Weissbecker and Decordova, who stand sixth. Young gave S.S. Jett 67.6 percent.
But Angela Tucker of Great Britain, at C, narrowly preferred Connaught, giving him the same score as fourth-placed The Mistress II and Sally Cousins (66.8%), followed by S.S. Jett (66.4%) and then Grand Slam (64.0%).
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Dutton is also tied for 15th on Amazing Odyssey (59.2). “I was pleased with both of them. Both of them are worrying-type horses,” said Dutton, who won Fair Hill in 1996 and 2000.
Dutton retired Connaught at the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** last April, after falling at the Sunken Road. “He’s a very, very good jumper in that he jumps very high and very carefully–almost too carefully for an event horse. And I think it was a mistake to do Kentucky; I overfaced him,” said Dutton.
Connaught then jumped faultlessly around the Saumur CCI*** (France) a month later. But in his first start this fall, in an advanced division at Menfelt (Md.), he fell at a bank combination. “I haven’t lost confidence in the horse,” insisted Dutton. “I think I’d been riding him a bit soft and open–the way I like to ride–and I think I need a bit more hand on the bit. I just have to adjust to him.”
Pollard thought his test was “better than Foxhall. He’s a lot better trained than he was there.”
Added Pollard, “The canter work was as good as he’s done all year,” but “at the trot he was behind the leg compared to what he can do.” Pollard thought that perhaps he’d drilled S.S. Jett too much in the days since arriving here, watching everyone else school. “He’s better when you try to control the energy, not having to make it,” observed Pollard.
The Mistress, winner of the Jersey Fresh CCI** (N.J.) in May, would have probably broken into today’s top three if she hadn’t bucked on the first flying change, scoring 4, 5 and 4 from the judges.
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The three judges showed considerable disagreement on numerous occasions today. A few examples: On Clifton Say What and Donna Smith (tied for 12th), Quarles gave her a 4 on the shoulder-in right, while Tucker and Young each scored a 7. They gave the same scores on the first flying change.
On Mystry Man II and Clarissa Wilmerding (18th place), Quarles gave a 7 on the final halt/salute, Tucker gave a 4, and Young gave a 6. And on the first flying change, which the horse executed before asked, in the middle of the medium canter, Quarles and Young gave a 1, while Tucker gave a 5.
On Amazing Odyssey, Tucker scored a 5 for the first extended trot, while Young scored a 7 and Quarles scored an 8.
Unlike the previous 15 renewals at Fair Hill, this year’s event will be running as a CCI without steeplechase (or roads and tracks). Tomorrow’s coverage will include an analysis of the 5,814-meter cross-country course, for which the optimum time is 10:12.
Another 32 horses do dressage tomorrow, starting at 9 a.m. Some 33 started today.
