Lexington, Ky.—Aug. 29

Tsetserleg TSF has seen his fair share of the Kentucky bluegrass, having competed in the Kentucky CCI5*-L five times throughout his long career, and according to rider Boyd Martin, the veteran gelding knows to show up when he’s at the Kentucky Horse Park.

“Thomas,” a 17-year-old Trakehner (Windfall—Thabana, Buddenbrock) did just that on cross-country for the $60,000 Adequan USEA Advanced Final at the USEA American Eventing Championships, adding 8.8 time penalties to their dressage score of 24.0. They retain the lead heading into tomorrow’s show jumping on a 32.8.

“Thomas was a vintage Tsetserleg,” Martin said. “The biggest challenge we had is he was attacking the fences, and I felt like all the way around he was brave as a lion. I was trying to slow him down and steady him up without wrestling him too much. But all in all, he’s such an experienced seasoned campaigner. So it was full of running, and all in all [he] gave me a fantastic round.”

Course designer Jay Hambly set a testing track of 23 fences with an optimum time of 6:27. Only Arden Wildasin and Sunday Times made the time, moving up from tied for 37^th to sixth.

“I think for this time of the year, and basically every top horse in this side of the country is competing here, so I think he built a challenging track,” said Martin. “There were lots of questions, really tested your rideability and your turning, and it was what I think was FEI four-and-a-half-star short. And I’m glad I was sitting on two of my most seasoned horses today.”

Martin also rode Commando 3, who is now sitting in third on a 36.0. “Conner,” an 11-year-old Holsteiner  (Connor 48—R-Adelgunde, Amigo xx), was Martin’s direct reserve for the Paris Olympics.

“Conner was absolutely brilliant,” Martin said. “I think he’s one of the best horses in the world. And, you know, he’s had sort of a long preparation to be ready to go to the Olympics. And sadly, for Conner, he didn’t get his chance to show his stuff in Paris. And he did it quite easy today. I’ve been having him ultra-prepared to step in at any minute. We had him very fit and schooled up and ready to rumble for last month, so he felt brilliant. And I’m just so excited for the future with Conner. It’s just an amazing animal.”

Like Thomas, Conner is gearing towards the Mars Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill in October, and while Thomas has done nine five-stars, this will be Conner’s debut at the level.

“Jay Hambly, similar to Derek De Grazia, [who designs Kentucky] and Ian Stark [who designs Maryland] in the design, he builds forward distances and big jumps, and I feel like he’s got a real gift of sort of these discrete little traps that he sets around the course,” said Martin.

Slotting in between Martin’s two rides in second was Will Coleman on Diabolo, who won the Cosequin Lexington CCI4*-S at the Kentucky Horse Park in April.

“My goal was really just to give him a nice round,” said Coleman. “About 20 seconds of time is what I had aimed for. This event is just one step towards a bigger goal at Maryland, but I was happy with how my horse responded.”

Coleman has been riding “Dab,” a 12-year-old Holsteiner (Diarado—Roulett M, Aljano 2), since April 2021.

“I think any horse you get, there’s just always this kind of 12 to 18 months where you have to invest in them to let them learn your system, let them kind of acclimate to your way of doing things, and vice versa, you’re doing the same thing in response to the horse,” he said. “So I think some of the foundational stuff we were trying to establish has become established, and now there’s a lot of trust and understanding between us, and the communication is getting a lot better.

“He still has some anxiety, but it’s all going in the right direction, and I think we can clean up the few errors we had in the dressage. But all things considered, coming out after a couple months, these are two decent first days, and hopefully we’ll have a good jump round tomorrow.”

Caroline Pamukcu was second overnight with King’s Especiale, and while that pair jumped clear, they added 16.8 time penalties to sit eighth on a 42.7. Sharon White was third after dressage with Claus 63, but they picked up a stop late on course and are now 33^rd. Liz Halliday, who was tied for eighth after dressage with Shanroe Cooley, has been hospitalized after a fall on course.

See the complete scores here.