FAIR HILL, Md.--British Olympic team gold medalist Oliver Townend on the Irish Sport Horse gelding Ballaghmor Class leads the Maryland five star on a score of 31.3 after cross country on Saturday, Oct. 19.
Oliver Townend on Ballaghmor Class (Photo by Allen MacMillan)David Doel of Great Britain on 13-year-old Galileo Nieuwmoed is second on a score of 34.5, followed close behind by 2022 Maryland champion Tim Price of New Zealand on Falco at 34.6.
Only eight of the 21 competitors that tackled the cross country course set by Ian Stark finished; four Americans, three from Great Britain and one from New Zealand.
Buck Davidson on Sorocaima is fourth on 39.2, followed by Bubby Upton, Great Britain, on Cola, 50/5.Jennie Brannigan on Twilightslastgleam, 52.3, Emily Hamel on Corvett, 69.0.and Lillian Heard Wood on LLC Barnaby, 79.6.
Townend is within striking distance of his first Maryland 5 Star victory after three consecutive third place finishes.
Ballaghmor, one of the greatest in the sport’s history, has led six times in five star events after cross-country with three wins, Burghley 2017 and ‘23, and Kentucky 2021, so is closing in on history.
Win a win tomorrow at Maryland, he would join the elite club of Priceless (four) and La Biosthetique Sam (six) as the only horses with more than three five-star wins.
“I THOUGHT that it was a very fair track, but it is a 5 Star, and this is the top of the sport,” said Townend. “As riders, you don’t want it to necessarily be easy and I thought that we would love to have more finishers, but at the same time if we have 80 runners, we’d have 40 finishers. so it is just a percentage game. For me, the footing, the course, the amazing crowds really give the feel of an exceptional event and an event that is going to be right up there with the very best in the world.”
Buck Davidson on Sorocaima (Photo by Allen MacMillan)It’s a proper five-star – for me Maryland is right up there with Badminton, Burghley, Kentucky, the others are a level less. This is the top, top of the sport and it’s not easy,” said Oliver after riding the three-time five-star winner round with 4.8 time-penalties.
“I tried to look after him all the way and ended up a bit slow because of it,” said Oliver, explaining he took a calculated gamble in opting for the long route at the second of the Sawmill Slices – brush corners over a ditch – at 18ab. “And then I looked after him all the way home… we know what he’s done, he’s special.”
Tamie Smth on Mai Baum, competing in his final five star before retirement, pulled up and retired after a long gallop up a hill.
She said that Mai Baum was tired and she didn't feel it was right to go on.
Boyd Martin had three horses entered in the five star.
He had a fall in the three star and withdrew his second three star horse but felt he was able to compete in the five star, although he withdrew On Cue before cross country.
But then his first five star mount, Commando 3, pecked badly jumping into the water, throwing Martin face down into the water.
Two men jumped in and pulled him up out of the water and EMT surrounded him, but he s reported to be okay today.
The show jumping begins Sunday at 3:07,
Sharon White on Jaguars Duende (Photo by Allen MacMillan)After Saturday's 3 Star Cross Country, Sharon White on Jaguars Duende rose from ninth place after Friday’s dressage to take the lead with a score of 29.6.
Sara Schulman remains second on Cooley Chromatic, finishing the cross-country round with a score of 30.6.
Alexandra Knowles on P.S. I Love You made an impressive jump from 14th place to third, finishing with a score of 31.4.
“I couldn’t have asked Jag to be better today,” said White. “It was really a special day for her, she is a very good competitor and her mind is excellent. It is really nice to sit on a horse you know wants to go and fight for you and will think of nothing else but doing her job. The biggest thing I learned about Jag is that she is really as good as I think she is, which is really satisfying. It was a big test to come here knowing that Ian Stark’s courses are always intense, so it is very satisfying when a horse does it so easily.”
According to Equiratings, today’s 3 Star competition presented its most demanding challenge since it began running alongside the 5 Star event.
Only 15% of riders—just 8 out of 53— managed to finish the cross-country phase within the optimum time, marking a sharp decline from previous years.
In addition, the cross-country jumping clear rate proved to be the toughest yet, with only 53% of riders achieving a faultless round.
This is a notable shift from the rates of 37% in 2021, 61% in 2022, and 68% in 2023.
This was course designer Ian Stark’s final cross-country course, retiring from course design.
This year’s course was the toughest test since five star integration, involving 28 jumps.
“It wasn’t quite the day I was hoping to retire on, had there been a dozen go around, I would have been much happier,” said Stark, himself a three-time Olympic rider for Great Britain.
“There were some unfortunate silly hiccups, but the good thing was that trouble was everywhere, it wasn’t one fence and from a designing point of view that is positive. I have had a great time here in Maryland and America as a whole and I have always said in mind and in my heart that this is the right time to retire.”
The event is being streamed globally via ClipMyHorse.TV and regionally via Maryland Public Television.