Courtney King wouldn’t be satisfied with merely winning the 40-horse Prix St. Georges class in the CDI at the Phelpssports.com Palm Beach Dressage Derby on March 2 in Loxahatchee, Fla.  She had to take both first and second with her two horses to go home happy. 

King rode Rendezvous 3 to the lead early on with a 72.45 percent and then almost tied herself aboard Mythilus with 72.10 percent later on in the class.  Lars Petersen rode Dacardo to third place (71.60%) ahead of Carol Lavell on Much Ado (69.95%), Katherine Poulin-Neff on Brilliant Too (69.15%) and Mikala Munter Gunderse on Pik L (69.00%).

“A little over a week ago Rendezvous had a colic,” said King.  “I’ve just been bringing her back really slowly.  She’s been feeling better the past couple of days, but not as on fire.  Today in the warm-up I felt that I could push for a little bit more, and she went in the ring and rose to the occasion.  She was really, really on because she has that sort of a heart.”

Mythilus won the Prix St. Georges when she showed him last week, but today King said he didn’t warm-up as well.  “He started out feeling so soft in the warm-up, really, really good,” she said.  “He wasn’t strong at all.  Then about halfway through I picked up the reins, and he was like a freight train.  So most of my test was a lot of diffusing.  Last week I could really put the burner under him.  Today, it was a really clean test, and the trot extensions at the end were great, but the whole beginning was like, ‘Whoa, you can kind of go, but not really.  Don’t take over!’  He’s such a fantastic quality horse and an overachiever. He was trying to put his heart on the line.”

Anne Gribbons, who judged at M, said the top horses were very close.  “We had the full range of everything, and that keeps you awake,” she said.  We had some very good top horses.  I know the top 12 of the 40 rides were really exciting.  The ones that are really on top are very tight together.”

King herself wasn’t sure which of the two horses she thought was better.  “I planned on having them show against each other in three shows, but as it turns out this is the first one where they went head-to-head,” she said.  “I got a lot of amusement that they were that close in score.  I think they’re both very good quality horses.  So depending on the day–if Myth’s extra hot or Rendezvous is worried–I think they can both put in even better tests then they did today.

In the Young Rider Team Test Jocelyn Wiese emerged victorious aboard Lamborghini.  The gray Hanoverian looked powerful and engaged, even demonstrating a bit of piaffe for Wiese before they entered the ring.  All of the young riders suffered from moments of inexperience where the consistency wasn’t 100 percent, but Lamborghini’s beautiful movement and uphill way of going helped propel him to the top of the class with 69.63 percent.

Devon Kane grabbed second place aboard Douwe (68.37%) ahead of Hannah Holland Shook on Cape Town (66.66%) and Emily Wagner on Molinari (65.70%).