TORONTO, CANADA--Two-time Olympic gold medalist Phillip Dutton won the $20,000 Indoor Eventing Challenge in a thrilling night of competition on Saturday, Nov. 4, at the Royal Horse Show, held as part of the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.
Phillip Dutton on Quasi Cool (Photo by Ben Radvanyl Photography)Having won Friday night’s first round of competition, Dutton, a six-time Olympian, was last to contest Saturday’s deciding second round riding Quasi Cool.
He thrilled the packed house once more with an electric performance and clear round to take the championship title.
“It was an incredible crowd,” said Dutton, 60, who is based out of his True Prospect Farm in West Grove, Pa. “It was a full house, and it’s fun to show off our sport in a major city like this. We spent the day looking at the cows, sheep, and pigs, and it’s just really a lot of fun to be here. We even met Royal Ambassador Kay, so it was a great day.”
While Friday’s course certainly tested the riders, Saturday’s track designed by Captain Mark Phillips of Great Britain proved to be even more demanding.
Competitors raced back and forth across the arena over a combination of show jumping and cross-country fences, negotiating several tricky lines as they took chances and made tight turns in an effort to produce the fastest clear time.
JUST THREE riders managed a clean round, but it was Dutton’s double-clear across the two days of competition and combined time of 181.41 seconds that won.
“I couldn’t be more proud of my horse,” said Dutton. “He’s coming back from a bit of time off, and he’s just showing me how much he loves doing this. On Friday, the format was a bit foreign to him with all the turning, and he really learned from that and did it so well on Saturday. Obviously, I haven’t done this kind of stuff with him before, but he came out Saturday and was much more maneuverable and adjustable.
“The hard part of eventing is that for a lot of the cross-country jumps we want the horses to not go too high and stay lower over the top,” he said. “When you put show jumping fences and cross-country jumps in here, it’s not that easy for the horses to understand not to get too high for some and then to be careful with the others. ‘Quasi’ is very good at judging how high to go, and he’s very careful all the time, so it’s nice to have.”
Kendal Lehari, 36, of Uxbridge, Ontario was the only other rider to go clean in both rounds on Iron Lorde to place second in a combined 193.03 seconds.
“I love indoor eventing,” said Lehari, who has been competing in the Indoor Eventing Challenge for more than a decade. “We are used to riding across acres where things are so spread out, and here everything comes up so fast and it’s such an adrenaline rush. It really tests your instincts, and you just ride gritty and get it done. You have to think so fast. It’s totally different than what we normally do, but it’s so exciting and so great having the spectators. It’s such a fun atmosphere and opportunity.”
Dutton’s daughter, 22-year-old Olivia Dutton, completed the top three on five faults and a combined time of 194.28 seconds riding Pioneer Archibald.
