Woodstock, England—Sept. 18
The United States’ Clark Montgomery has taken a commanding lead at lunchtime on the second day of dressage at Blenheim Palace International CCI***.
Riding Holly and William Becker’s Loughan Glen, Montgomery performed a beautiful test for a mark of 33.8—well ahead of Germany’s Sandra Auffarth, who scored 37.2 yesterday on Ispo.
“It’s a difficult test and he usually starts to [tire] as the test goes on, and he did that a little bit to me, but he still did a fairly decent job,” Montgomery said.
Montgomery is based in England, and he and Loughan Glen were third in the Blenheim CCI*** in 2013. “He loves Blenheim and he loves the [cross-country] track going this direction so it seemed like the perfect year to come back and give it another crack,” Montgomery said. “He’s had very solid performances. He won his two-star prep for this and he’s had a great few runs.”
Montgomery leads a strong U.S. contingent at Blenheim with six riders making the trek across the ocean to compete. “It’s a fantastic experience for the riders who are based at home to come over to Blenheim with the atmosphere here. The course is fantastic,” Montgomery said.
At the lunch break of the second day of dressage, Liz Halliday-Sharp is the next-highest placed American, in 13th with 45.9 on Fernhill By Night. Lauren Kieffer is right behind her in a tie for 14th on 46.2 with Veronica.
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Elisa Wallace lies in 26th with Simply Priceless (50.1) and Will Coleman is in 31st on OBOS O’Reilly (51.1). Jennifer McFall and High Times are in 69th with a score of 62.9. Emily Beshear and Shame On The Moon go in the final afternoon session of dressage on Friday.
Montgomery noted that he’s got Loughan Glen, who won the Belton CIC*** (England) in April and was sixth in the Lümuhlen CCI**** (Germany) in June, aimed for a spot on the 2016 Rio Olympic Games squad. “This is him, it’s all on Glen,” he said.
Montgomery and Glen were leading after the dressage at the Badminton CCI**** (England) in 2014, but had to retire on course when a grueling track and muddy footing sapped Glen’s energy.
Britain’s Pippa Funnell scored 39.3 on Billy The Biz to take third place in the CCI*** on Friday morning.
Billy The Biz, a grey 10-year-old by Cevin Z, is owned by Carol Toliver, who also owns Mirage D’Elle, currently in 25th place in the same class.
Funnell said: “He’s one who show jumped through his younger career. He’s come through the [eventing] grades pretty quickly as he has the mileage with the jumping but I’ve had a couple of little blips where has been eager and over-jumped into water and we’ve had a dunking, so I’m going to have to sit back and tight tomorrow.
