Lexington, Ky.—April 28

Coming into the second day of Cosequin Lexington CCI4*-S dressage, it was clear that Liz Halliday-Sharp’s Day 1-leading score of 24.5 with Cooley Nutcracker would be tough to beat. And while no one was able to top that, it was Halliday-Sharp herself who came closest to knocking “Bali” out of the top spot. Her second mount in the division, Cooley Be Cool, scored a 25.5 to slip into second place. Tamie Smith now sits third with Solaguayre California on their Thursday score of 27.6.

“I was really thrilled with him; I thought he was very professional and stayed with me the whole way which is really great,” Halliday-Sharp said of Cooley Be Cool. “He’s come out very professional this year. I thought his half-passes were beautiful today, and there was a lot of really good flow. He’s not the flashiest horse in the world, but he’s very consistent.

“I thought he just really flowed through the whole test beautifully today,” she continued. “We only had one little wobble in the first change where he was just a little keen, where he changed behind before he changed in front. Otherwise I think he would have been on the same score as the other horse, which is really exciting because he’s sort of the horse people haven’t thought that much of, but I’ve always said I think he’s a very, very good horse. And he’s proved that this year.”

Halliday-Sharp found “Dave” as a 6-year-old from Richard Sheane of Cooley Farm in Ireland and has brought him up to the advanced level. Now 10, he’s won the two events he’s entered this year at Setters’ Run Farm Carolina International CCI3*-S (North Carolina) and the Event at TerraNova CCI4*-S (Florida) in preparation for Kentucky.

“He’s an interesting horse,” she said. “He’s one that I remember Richard Sheane said, ‘I don’t know that he’ll win that much as a young horse, but he’s going to be a top five-star horse for you.’ He’s starting to come into his own; he’s just 10 years old now. He’s got incredible scope; he’s extremely arrogant and very brave, which I think makes him a very good horse. He’s got a lot of fight in him.”

Since the four-star competition has been added to the schedule at the Land Kentucky Three-Day Event, Derek di Grazia’s track has been known to shake up the leaderboard in a dramatic fashion. But Halliday-Sharp believes it won’t produce quite the same result this time around.

“I think he’s built a kinder track this year,” she said. “The last two years were extremely intense and right from the beginning very intense. This year lets the horses get into the track a little bit more. It’s an amazing experience for horses to get up in this big arena, to have to jump here on the last day and to be on the grounds we hope they’ll be on as five-star horses. I found last year there was plenty of crowd as well, and some of these horses need to see that. So I usually bring younger horses here. I’ve got a 9-year-old and 10-year-old. I think it will be a fabulous experience for them. I hope both of them will do the five-star next year.”

The four-star cross-country runs from 9:15-11:45 a.m. Saturday.

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The Chronicle is on-site at the Kentucky Horse Park with reporters to bring you everything you need to know at coth.com, so you don’t have to miss a minute of the action. You can find all of our coverage from the week here. You can also follow along on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Be sure to read our May 22 Kentucky Results issue for more in-depth coverage and analysis of the event.