Woodstock, England—Sept. 20
Clark Montgomery will be hoping that a superb pillar-to-post victory in the CCI*** at the 25th anniversary Blenheim Palace International will be enough to impress the selectors for the American eventing team at next year’s Rio Olympics.
Clark Montgomery celebrating his Blenheim CCI*** win on Loughan Glen. Photo by Shannon Brinkman
Two immaculate jumping performances meant he added nothing to his leading dressage score of 33.8 on Holly and William Becker’s Loughan Glen, the horse he finished third on at Blenheim two years ago.
Montgomery had two rails in hand when he entered the show jumping on Loughan Glen, but he didn’t need them as he jumped clean. “It’s still really nerve-wracking,” he said. “You don’t want to use the two and you never know, you could have more than two. His technique isn’t the most conventional, but he always tries. He was definitely more tired in there than I expected, but he tried at every fence.”
Loughan Glen tried hard for Clark Montgomery and their clean round helped them clinch the Blenheim CCI*** title. Photo by Shannon Brinkman
Montgomery and his wife, Jess, moved to England three years ago to refine his competitiveness. “It hasn’t always been good, but I think everybody goes through that with horses. We’re having a great year this year and we’ll ride that wave as long as we can,” he said.
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“I couldn’t be happier. We’ll talk with David [O’Connor, the U.S. coach] and see what he wants, but he deserve a long vacation,” Montgomery continued. “We’ll pick him back up in the winter and try and do what’s best for Rio. It may be a CCI three-star or a four-star. We’ll just regroup now and see what they want to do. I couldn’t have done a better job to get selected, but you never know. It’s the biggest win of my career and it feels fantastic.”
Clark, whose wife Jessica was acting as his groom, has been based this year with Capt. Mark Phillips at Aston Farm in Gloucestershire. “The reason I’m here [in Britain] is that it’s so much more competitive,” he said.
The supremely talented Christopher Burton’s purple patch continued with second place, also on a clean sheet, with Sue Lawson and Carolyn and Anthony Townsend’s Nobilis 18, a horse he hopes to add to his string of possibilities for the Australian team at the Olympics.
Kitty King, also, is enjoying the season of her life. Last weekend she was the best of the silver medal British team at the Europeans; here, she finished third and best Briton on her Tattersalls CCI*** winner, Jacqueline Owen, Diana Bown and Samantha Wilson’s Ceylor LAN.
“It’s been a dream season,” said King, who lives near Chippenham, Wiltshire. “This was a big test for this horse because he’s not full Thoroughbred and is only 8, but he galloped all the way to the end and he show jumped beautifully.”
It’s perhaps fortunate that Montgomery has only a short journey home—he won fistfuls of prizes in kind, including from Equilibrium, John Sankey Furniture, Lansdown Country, the Oxford Times and Stormtech.
In a good day for the U.S. squad, Lauren Kieffer, sixth on Veronica, took home the Ariat prizes for best first-timer at Blenheim. Emily Beshear was right behind her in seventh on Shame On The Moon.
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Lauren Kieffer and Veronica jumped into sixth place. Photo by Shannon Brinkman
Emily Beshear on Shame On The Moon, seventh in the CCI***. Photo by Shannon Brinkman
The top-20 U.S. finishers also included Will Coleman on OBOS O’Reilly in 11th. Elisa Wallace completed her first overseas CCI*** in 29th place on Simply Priceless. Liz Halliday-Sharp rounded out the U.S. finishers in 62nd place on Fernhill By Night.
Will Coleman on OBOS O’Reilly, in 11th.
Earlier, the crowd was treated to stirring parades by Britain’s medal-winning senior, Young Rider, Junior, Pony and CIC2* teams plus one very special visitor: to a standing ovation, Zara Phillips cantered around the arena on Toytown, the wonderful old horse with whom she won the European title at Blenheim 10 years ago.
