By Grace Netter
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For his second consecutive year, German rider and current top eventing rider of the world, Michael Jung, won the 2016 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event on his mare FischerRocana FST, owned by his parents Brigitte and Joachim Jung. The pair finished on a score of 39.2, keeping first place through all three phases. He was the only rider to maintain a score in the 30s the entire event, even with 0.8 time penalties in cross-country and 4 jump penalties in stadium.Along with adding a second Rolex watch to his wrist, Jung took home the winner’s purse of $110,000.
Second place and $55,000 went to Lauren Kiefferof the U. S., riding Veronica. She moved up from eighth place to second, with her final score of 52.5.She had 7.6 time penalties during cross-country and 1 time penalty in stadium. This is a big victory after having retired during cross-country last year. She was also the highest-placing American in the competition.
Third place, making the biggest jump from her dressage placing of twelfth, went to Maya Black of the U. S. on Doesn’t Play Fair, winning $40,000 with a score of 53.9. The pair placed 22nd place last year.
Phillip Dutton of the U. S. came in fourth on Mighty Nice with a score of 57.8 for a purse of $34,000. He placed fifth on his other mount, Fernhill Cubalawn.
Jung now adds his second Rolex victory to a long list of accomplishments. He won the gold medal at the 2010 World Equestrian Games, as well as the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in London. Following his win in September 2015 at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, a first place finish at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials means he has won the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing and $350,000. He is looking ahead at the 2016 Olympics this summer with high hopes.
Team USA won the fourth annual $20,000 Dubarry Nations Team Challenge, with their score of 178.5 penalties, receiving $8,000. In second place was Team New Zealand with 238.0 penalties and $6,000, and Team Australia, Germany, and Great Britain came in third with 298.5 penalties and $4,000.
Dressage–April 28-29:
On the first day, defending champions Michael Jung and FischerRocana FST recorded a near perfect dressage test with an astounding 34.4 score, putting them in first place. On the second day, the last rider Allison Springer and her horse Arthur showed their usual prowess in dressage, scoring 39.7, to put them in second place. Marilyn Little and RF Demeter scored a 42.5 for third place and Elisabeth Halliday-Sharp and Fernhill By Night sat in fourth place with a score of 43.0. Although he did not compete in the competition this year, Will Faudree rode the test ride on Jennifer Mosing’s horse, Hans Dampf.
A big first at the Kentucky Horse Park was Daniela Moguel – the first four-star competitor from Mexico. Karen O’Connor, who is the coach for the Mexican eventing team, trained Moguel for the event. Achieving a 58.1 in dressage and finishing on an 86.5, this four-star trailblazer ended up 28th overall.
No horses were eliminated during dressage this year, but Lisa Berry withdrew F.I.S Prince Charming before dressage. Before cross-country, seven horses were withdrawn, including fourt-placed Elisabeth Halliday-Sharp’s Fernhill By Night.
Thursday’s dressage drew 7,842 paid admissions, and Friday drew 14,171attendees.
Cross Country–April 30:
Saturday’s forecast was for down-pouring rain.The seasoned ground crew made sure to take care of the footing around the course to ensure that, even in the wet weather, everything would still be as safe as possible. They did a good job, because there were no major injuries on course this year.
Derek Di Grazia, last year’s course designer, returned with a technical course, making it quite a challenge to finish within the optimum time. The FEI retained their 11-penalty rule for activating frangible pins on course, which came into play for four riders. The optimum time for the course was 11:51 minutes and featured 29 fences in total, including a whopping five water complexes. One of those was the new Land Rover Landing.
Out of 64 riders qualified for cross-country, only 56 finished. Di Grazia’s forward course left no double clear rides, each coming out with time penalties. The fastest time was that of Michael Jung, who was only 2 seconds over the time. Five horses were eliminated on course, while three retired. This is a huge contrast to last year where sixteen were eliminated and nine retired. There were four rider falls, including third place rider Marilyn Little, who fell along with her horse RF Demeter, who looked to be tiring during the course. This was the only horse to fall during the competition, and there were no injuries to horses or riders during the entire weekend.
An increased number of spectators from last year, 34,552 people came out despite the rain to watch the cross country.
Stadium Jumping–May 1:
On Sunday, even as the clouds loomed, it seemed that the rain would stay away long enough for the concluding phase of this wonderful event. Like the past 16 years, the Sunday lineup started with the presentation of the Prince Philip Cup to the winners of the United States Pony Clubsmounted games competition. The opening ceremony followed with a parade of the flags of each country represented.
As the rain came intermittently, out of the 54 riders who attempted the course, only four went double clear with no jumping faults and no time penalties. Only seven horse and rider combinations had no jump penalties, while 25 had no time penalties. The optimum time was 92 seconds to jump the course of 13 fences, which included an option on fence 11. No horses were eliminated during stadium jumping, but Katherine Coleman’s horse, Courage Under Fire, was withdrawn before, and Holly Payne Caravella’s Never Outfoxed did not pass the second horse inspection.
With this tough, technical course by Richard Jeffery, the top four did not come out unscathed either. Michael Jung had one rail down, yet it didn’t hurt his first place score. Lauren Kieffer, originally in sixth place, only had one time penalty, which bumped her to second place on the leaderboard. Third place Maya Black had one rail as well, and Phillip Dutton had two rails down, which added eight penalties to his score and bumped him to fourth place.
In the awards ceremony, as the German national anthem played, Jung was all smiles and he was presented with his second Rolex watch. His parents, the owners of FischerRocana FST, joined him in the arena to receive the crystal The Rolex Three-Day Perpetual Trophy, which will stay at the Kentucky Horse Park.
On Sunday 25,545 spectators came for the show jumping phase, bringing the weekend total to 82,110 people who enjoyed Rolex Kentucky, a large increase from last year.
In addition to the competition, there were other events buzzing around the Horse Park. For the second year in a row, the RK-5K Twilight Run and accompanying 1 mile fun run, were held, which brought runners on a route throughout the grounds of the park. This year, instead of the Kentucky Reining Cup, five-time Grammy nominee Hunter Hayes performed in the Alltech Arena on Saturday night following the cross country phase. A portion of the ticket sales went to the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation and the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance. As usual, the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event International Trade Fair attracted over 175 merchants with a wide variety of mostly horse-related goods for sale.
Full results and further information on the 2016 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event Presented by Land Rover are available at the website at www.rk3de.org
View More Photos >>
For his second consecutive year, German rider and current top eventing rider of the world, Michael Jung, won the 2016 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event on his mare FischerRocana FST, owned by his parents Brigitte and Joachim Jung. The pair finished on a score of 39.2, keeping first place through all three phases. He was the only rider to maintain a score in the 30s the entire event, even with 0.8 time penalties in cross-country and 4 jump penalties in stadium.Along with adding a second Rolex watch to his wrist, Jung took home the winner’s purse of $110,000.
Second place and $55,000 went to Lauren Kiefferof the U. S., riding Veronica. She moved up from eighth place to second, with her final score of 52.5.She had 7.6 time penalties during cross-country and 1 time penalty in stadium. This is a big victory after having retired during cross-country last year. She was also the highest-placing American in the competition.
Third place, making the biggest jump from her dressage placing of twelfth, went to Maya Black of the U. S. on Doesn’t Play Fair, winning $40,000 with a score of 53.9. The pair placed 22nd place last year.
Phillip Dutton of the U. S. came in fourth on Mighty Nice with a score of 57.8 for a purse of $34,000. He placed fifth on his other mount, Fernhill Cubalawn.
Jung now adds his second Rolex victory to a long list of accomplishments. He won the gold medal at the 2010 World Equestrian Games, as well as the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in London. Following his win in September 2015 at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, a first place finish at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials means he has won the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing and $350,000. He is looking ahead at the 2016 Olympics this summer with high hopes.
Team USA won the fourth annual $20,000 Dubarry Nations Team Challenge, with their score of 178.5 penalties, receiving $8,000. In second place was Team New Zealand with 238.0 penalties and $6,000, and Team Australia, Germany, and Great Britain came in third with 298.5 penalties and $4,000.
Dressage–April 28-29:
On the first day, defending champions Michael Jung and FischerRocana FST recorded a near perfect dressage test with an astounding 34.4 score, putting them in first place. On the second day, the last rider Allison Springer and her horse Arthur showed their usual prowess in dressage, scoring 39.7, to put them in second place. Marilyn Little and RF Demeter scored a 42.5 for third place and Elisabeth Halliday-Sharp and Fernhill By Night sat in fourth place with a score of 43.0. Although he did not compete in the competition this year, Will Faudree rode the test ride on Jennifer Mosing’s horse, Hans Dampf.
A big first at the Kentucky Horse Park was Daniela Moguel – the first four-star competitor from Mexico. Karen O’Connor, who is the coach for the Mexican eventing team, trained Moguel for the event. Achieving a 58.1 in dressage and finishing on an 86.5, this four-star trailblazer ended up 28th overall.
No horses were eliminated during dressage this year, but Lisa Berry withdrew F.I.S Prince Charming before dressage. Before cross-country, seven horses were withdrawn, including fourt-placed Elisabeth Halliday-Sharp’s Fernhill By Night.
Thursday’s dressage drew 7,842 paid admissions, and Friday drew 14,171attendees.
Cross Country–April 30:
Saturday’s forecast was for down-pouring rain.The seasoned ground crew made sure to take care of the footing around the course to ensure that, even in the wet weather, everything would still be as safe as possible. They did a good job, because there were no major injuries on course this year.
Derek Di Grazia, last year’s course designer, returned with a technical course, making it quite a challenge to finish within the optimum time. The FEI retained their 11-penalty rule for activating frangible pins on course, which came into play for four riders. The optimum time for the course was 11:51 minutes and featured 29 fences in total, including a whopping five water complexes. One of those was the new Land Rover Landing.
Out of 64 riders qualified for cross-country, only 56 finished. Di Grazia’s forward course left no double clear rides, each coming out with time penalties. The fastest time was that of Michael Jung, who was only 2 seconds over the time. Five horses were eliminated on course, while three retired. This is a huge contrast to last year where sixteen were eliminated and nine retired. There were four rider falls, including third place rider Marilyn Little, who fell along with her horse RF Demeter, who looked to be tiring during the course. This was the only horse to fall during the competition, and there were no injuries to horses or riders during the entire weekend.
An increased number of spectators from last year, 34,552 people came out despite the rain to watch the cross country.
Stadium Jumping–May 1:
On Sunday, even as the clouds loomed, it seemed that the rain would stay away long enough for the concluding phase of this wonderful event. Like the past 16 years, the Sunday lineup started with the presentation of the Prince Philip Cup to the winners of the United States Pony Clubsmounted games competition. The opening ceremony followed with a parade of the flags of each country represented.
As the rain came intermittently, out of the 54 riders who attempted the course, only four went double clear with no jumping faults and no time penalties. Only seven horse and rider combinations had no jump penalties, while 25 had no time penalties. The optimum time was 92 seconds to jump the course of 13 fences, which included an option on fence 11. No horses were eliminated during stadium jumping, but Katherine Coleman’s horse, Courage Under Fire, was withdrawn before, and Holly Payne Caravella’s Never Outfoxed did not pass the second horse inspection.
With this tough, technical course by Richard Jeffery, the top four did not come out unscathed either. Michael Jung had one rail down, yet it didn’t hurt his first place score. Lauren Kieffer, originally in sixth place, only had one time penalty, which bumped her to second place on the leaderboard. Third place Maya Black had one rail as well, and Phillip Dutton had two rails down, which added eight penalties to his score and bumped him to fourth place.
In the awards ceremony, as the German national anthem played, Jung was all smiles and he was presented with his second Rolex watch. His parents, the owners of FischerRocana FST, joined him in the arena to receive the crystal The Rolex Three-Day Perpetual Trophy, which will stay at the Kentucky Horse Park.
On Sunday 25,545 spectators came for the show jumping phase, bringing the weekend total to 82,110 people who enjoyed Rolex Kentucky, a large increase from last year.
In addition to the competition, there were other events buzzing around the Horse Park. For the second year in a row, the RK-5K Twilight Run and accompanying 1 mile fun run, were held, which brought runners on a route throughout the grounds of the park. This year, instead of the Kentucky Reining Cup, five-time Grammy nominee Hunter Hayes performed in the Alltech Arena on Saturday night following the cross country phase. A portion of the ticket sales went to the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation and the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance. As usual, the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event International Trade Fair attracted over 175 merchants with a wide variety of mostly horse-related goods for sale.
Full results and further information on the 2016 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event Presented by Land Rover are available at the website at www.rk3de.org
