PrintCool Mountain made his first four-star cross-country look easy as he quietly galloped to a double-clear round with Great Britain’s William Fox-Pitt to maintain his dressage lead of 42.8 at Rolex Kentucky on April 24.
Kim Severson moved up to second place on Tipperary Liadhnan (44.8) by adding no penalties to her dressage score ahead of Becky Holder on Courageous Comet (45.2). Phillip Dutton sits in fourth with Woodburn (47.7) and fifth with The Foreman (48.0) ahead of Karen O'Connor and Mandiba (48.1)
Listen to an interview with Dutton.
The cross-country schedule was rearranged to try and avoid a major storm front coming through Lexington, Ky. The organizers decided to skip the lunch break and run the afternoon horses every four minutes instead of every five. This move proved wise, as the thunder and lightning rolled in around 3:15 p.m.
“I’m naturally very happy. I knew I had a very genuine horse,” said Fox-Pitt. “I thought the course would be demanding physically on the horses, and it proved to be. My chap got a little bit tired, but he’s a bit lazy anyway. He’d like to pull himself up after three minutes—that’s how he is. That’s why he does nice dressage. He doesn’t have any desire to go any faster than you’re making him.”
Listen to an interview with Fox-Pitt.
Severson expressed surprise at her good standing. “Paddy’s been quite a good cross-country horse all along. That’s been his strongest thing. I was really pleased with him, despite trotting the corner in the water. I don’t know what happened there,” she said. "Paddy" broke to trot after dropping into the Head of the Lake and cleared the maximum corner at 15C without breaking into canter.
Severson and Fox-Pitt said their horses grew more tired than they expected. “As we’ve experienced here before, when the ground starts to dry up, it becomes a bit more holding. He was really great up until nine minutes, and then he definitely got tired,” said Severson. “It will be interesting to see how he comes out tomorrow.”
Holder finished exactly on the time allowed of 11:08.
“I was determined not to pay too much attention to the clock. The main fence I was worried about was coming out of the water [at 16B],” she said. “Comet can be a little spooky from time to time about weird footing changes. Phillip [Dutton] said that his horse, The Foreman, had a moment of not reading it, and that made my decision that I would go around and loop over and take the long way. He’s such a quick horse, and he has a fantastic gallop, and I think you can get on the time that way. He finished full of run.”
