Phillip Dutton made a last-minute decision to run The Foreman at the North Georgia CIC***-W in Chatsworth, Ga., April 8-10. And that choice paid off well as he took home $10,000 for first place with the 9-year-old gelding, who just keeps earning one major title after another for Dutton and owner Annie Jones.

“Chip” has garnered most of the limelight for Dutton’s True Prospect Farm, in West Grove, Pa., lately, winning last fall’s Fair Hill CCI*** (Md.) and last month’s Red Hills CIC***-W (Fla.). But Dutton showed at North Georgia that his competitors also need to watch out for his more veteran partner, Hannigan, who came back from an injury last summer to start this season with a second place at Chatsworth.

Dutton is preparing both horses, along with a third mount, Nova Top, for the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** at the end of April. It will be The Foreman’s first four-star, and Dutton thought he should take him to Chatsworth rather than the Morven Park Horse Trials (Va.) the previous weekend, where Chip had already run the course several times.

“He’s never been here before, and I thought this would be a better prep,” said Dutton. “It was a good learning experience for him.”

The Foreman will face his biggest test to date at Kentucky, and Dutton thinks he has some work to do before then.

“Hannigan got the [cross-country] time quite easily, but The Foreman is not quite as experienced,” he said. “I had to work more with him; he wasn’t quite as focused to the narrow fences as he needs to be, but I plan to work on that before Kentucky.”

Better Than Expected

Heavy rains earlier in the week forced officials to change the schedule to run show jumping on Saturday, instead of Sunday. On the cross-country course, they removed fence 23A, the Lobster Trap before the final corner, and fences 27AB, 28, 29, 30 and 31 from the wettest part of the course.

“It rode quite well, and the footing was better than I expected,” said Dutton. “Everyone kept telling me it was going to dry out, but I was skeptical. I was concerned about the ground and making sure I looked after my horses. I wanted to keep the horses in their comfort zone.”

For Hannigan, that comfort zone was quick enough to make the time; in fact, he was 7 seconds fast. “He hasn’t run a [tough] course in a while, but he was brilliant as always,” said Dutton.

Dutton has high hopes for the 14-year-old, Irish-bred gelding, who was injured just before the Olympics last year. His last event was the 2004 Rolex Kentucky CCI, where he finished second in the modified division. He just returned to work in January, and Dutton ran him over seven intermediate fences at Morven Park before heading to North Georgia, where he bested some of the top horses in the country after only a few months of work.

“He’s on the fast track to get to Kentucky,” said Dutton confidently.

Hannigan’s owner, Bruce Duchossois, doesn’t usually get to go to Kentucky because he runs a horse show in Aiken, S.C., on the same date. “But he’s a big follower and supporter of the sport,” said Dutton. “I told him he’d better get on a plane for Sunday [the final day of competition at Kentucky], because [Hannigan] is going to be up there.”

In the five years that he’s had Hannigan, formerly owned and ridden by Abigail Lufkin, Dutton has developed a close relationship. “He’s one of my all-time favorite horses,” he said. “I have a real soft spot for him. He’s a real character and the kindest horse to be around. He’s very inquisitive.”

Dutton also takes special pride in Chip’s accomplishments, since he’s had the Thoroughbred since he came off the track as a 3-year-old.

Chip stood second to Kim Severson and Winsome Adante after dressage, and Hannigan was fourth, behind Darren Chiacchia on Windfall. Dutton has been working with advanced rider Mara Dean on the flat, and Capt. Mark Phillips also gave him some guidance. But he’s not sure how Chip will handle the four-star test at Kentucky. “It will be hard for him,” he said.

While Dutton posted two of the best dressage scores, it was Saturday’s show jumping that vaulted him into the two top spots. He posted two of only three clear rounds over Richard Lamb’s course. And Dutton modestly gave his horses the credit.

“I went through a stage where I was good at cross-country but not show jumping,” he said. “Now I don’t try to ride a horse unless it’s careful; it’s too frustrating. I was a touch lucky on The Foreman, but I think Hannigan didn’t even touch a fence.”

Dutton said the difficult show jumping course at the Red Hills CIC***-W was bigger and more square, but that the Chatsworth course rode hard because it was so twisty and turning. “I try to get so that I can ride forward to the jump and not have to hold them,” he said. “That creates confidence.”

The show jumping knocked Severson from the top spot when “Dan” pulled two rails, and Chiacchia, who was third after show jumping with one lowered rail, fell to fourth with 4 cross-country time faults.

Some Positive Changes

Dutton and Severson agreed that this year’s cross-country course, designed again by Capt. Mark Phillips, was a bit softer than it’s been in the past. “Coming out of the water, there was nothing to do–just jump up the bank,” said Dutton, who wasn’t crazy about the new question at fence 7AB, the Bunker, a table and a sharp left turn to a narrow oxer. “I’m not a great fan of that kind of stuff, but it’s a way to slow the horses and riders up. The jumps seem to be getting narrower.”

The bunker caused run-outs for Cathy Wieschhoff on Ocotillo, Nathalie Bouckaert-Pollard on West Farthing and Sara Kozumplik on As You Like It (who also fell at fence 17 but completed the course).

“The bunker came up very quickly,” agreed Severson. “You had to seriously show jump the first box and hope they saw the second one.”

One of the other problem fences was fence 4, a table to either a bending left line to a corner or to a corner more directly ahead, but slightly to the right.

Most of the riders opted for the corner on the right, a slightly longer choice. “We talked about that fence a lot, but you could just keep galloping if you jumped the right side,” said Severson.

She appreciated the change to fences 10-11, a chevron table to a narrow triple brush just before the water jump. “They extended it to four strides [last year it was three or four strides], and they moved it away from the tree a little,” she said.

The riders also agreed with the decision to remove the final loop of the course, where the footing was the deepest.

“That part [of the course] always feels heavy,” said Severson. “This year, I think the course was softer than it’s been in a long time, technically. You could ride more forward on course, and the time was easier than I thought. Most people had a good time. My horses came off the course feeling like, ‘that’s it?’ “

With an experienced field, there were few difficulties on the course. Hannigan, Winsome Adante and Kristin Schmolze on Cavaldi all finished inside the time, and Will Faudree was just 1 second slow on Antigua.

Planning Ahead

With two wins at Kentucky already on his resume, Winsome Adante, the 2004 individual Olympic silver medalist, is heading back for a third time. Severson wants to get qualifying for next year’s World Championships out of the way, and she wants to do it on U.S. soil, as Dan has been on a plane each of the last three years–for the 2002 World Championships in Spain, for the 2003 Burghley CCI**** (England), where he colicked and couldn’t compete, and for the 2004 Olympics.

While Severson was disappointed with Dan’s show jumping, which she blamed on herself, the pair jumped around the cross-country with their usual ease, finishing 7 seconds fast to keep third place.

Royal Venture, who took fifth at North Georgia, will not run at Kentucky, since a health problem at the beginning of the year delayed his preparation. Both horses are owned by Linda Wachtmeister’s Plain Dealing Farm in Scottsville, Va.

“He had an EPM-type thing,” said Severson, who plans to run him in the Jersey Fresh CCI*** without steeplechase (N.J.) in May. Then, she hopes to take him to the Luhmuhlen CCI**** without steeplechase (Germany) in June.

“I’ve never done a four-star on him, and if he’s feeling well and we get a grant, we’ll go do it,” she said.

“Venny” came back from three colic surgeries in 2003 and early 2004 to win last fall’s USEF Championship by finishing second to Dutton and The Foreman at the Fair Hill CCI***.