Elkton, Md.—Oct. 20

Ever since the Mars Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill began, Oliver Townend has been gunning for a win. He’s been second. He’s been third twice. He’s held the lead after cross-country only for a rail to derail his quest for victory.

But today, with his veteran five-star partner Ballaghmor Class, Townend finally got his win—the first in four tries for Townend. The pair were ever so slightly off the lead after dressage in second, but moved into the top spot thanks to a strong cross-country performance Saturday. A foot-perfect show jumping round secured the win on a score of 31.3.

“It’s unbelievable and [I’m] relieved,” he said. “More than anything, a lot of pressure comes with riding Ballaghmor Class; I think because I expect to do well on him. And when you’re against these guys, it takes some winning. It’s a five-star for a reason. And five-stars are very, very tough to win. I was very conscious that I’d come into the last sort of, you know, come in two times in the lead into the show jumping and not come out being the winner. So I thought, if it went wrong this time, I’m going to have to get a show jumping coach or something like that.”

With this victory, Townend has nine five-star wins to his name, tying him with Lucinda Green and Andrew Nicholson, and “Thomas” is responsible for four of those. The gelding has won Burghley (England) twice, Kentucky once and now Maryland.

“Tying with Andrew Nicholson was very important to me, and he’s been a very important person in my life, personal life and career,” Townend said. “And yeah, I’m sure that he’s probably going to make a comeback now, and we’ll probably drink a bottle of gin between us and argue over who’s the best five-star winning horse we’ve had. But, no, to be even mentioned in those the realms of those names is very surreal to me, because I was the biggest fan of the sport as a kid, and to even be put in the same sentence, for me, is very strange.”

At 17, the Irish Sport Horse (Courage II—Kilderry Place) is on the older end, but Townend’s said all week that he’s not the type to be a “happy hacker” who will enjoy retirement. When asked if he’s thought anymore about retiring the Irish Sport Horse owned by Val Ryan, Karyn Souter and Angela Hislop after this win, he quipped, “Would you?”

The gelding has lost five-stars due to rails in the past, but Townend feels confident in the gelding’s ability to jump well on footing.

“It’s very difficult to judge horses’ show jumping performance when they’re forced to through mud first at Badminton and Burghley, and they go in and jump on the worst possible ground you could put in front of them. He’s gone in the lead an awful lot of times, and had one down and come out, and everybody says he’s not a great show jumper. Well, he’s been on two surfaces, two good surfaces, in good light, at Kentucky and at Maryland, and to me, he’s jumped as good as any of them.”

Tim Price of New Zealand was sitting third after cross-country, but thanks to a clear show jumping performance on Falco, he moved into second on a 34.6. Though the Hanoverian gelding (Cardenio 2—Witta, Weinberg) is 15 and has plenty of championship experience, he’s only competed at two five-stars. The first was at Pau (France) in 2021, which he won, and this one.

“He is something else,” Price said. “He makes the job very easy for me. I think, from all the things we learned, you know, doing this for a number of years at top level, the different horses that have the ability to jump clear rounds, we still have to be quite clever and consider how we produce that result. Whereas with this horse, I get to ride with my leg on, support him, give him a good distance and keep my body still, because he often comes down from quite a steep height, and that’s it. I’m very privileged to ride him.”

Great Britain’s David Doel was second after cross-country as the only rider to finish inside the time on yesterday’s course with Galileo Nieuwmoed, but a rail in the triple combination meant they dropped to third on a 38.5.

“I’ve got a phenomenal horse there, and I just felt that, actually, I let him down today,” he said. “Didn’t quite do him the justice. The distance going down to the treble was a little bit quiet and just made him work a little bit too hard. … He wouldn’t be an out and out Falco, a double-clear machine, but he is normally a very, very good jumping horse. So yeah, there was definitely sort of a my mistake today and kicking myself a bit; [I] always like to put a little bit more pressure on Oliver.”

Buck Davidson also made a big move up the leaderboard throughout the weekend with Sorocaima to be the top-placed U.S. pair. They started in 13^th after dressage and moved into fourth after cross-country. The 13-year-old Thoroughbred (Rock Hard Ten—Sankobasi, Pulpit) had two down today to finish on a 47.6 in his sixth five-star.

“He’s been amazing,” Davidson said of “Cam.” “He raced 60 times. A friend of mine called me and said they had a horse that they wanted me to have; to be honest with you, I tried everything I could do to not buy it, but I really didn’t have an excuse not to. Yeah, he just goes to work every day. And, you know, he tried his heart out, and a little disappointed today because this was the best show jumping he’s had, but he fights like crazy.”

Full results here.

The Chronicle is on-site at the Mars Maryland 5 Star, bringing you photos and stories from all phases of the event. You can find all of our coverage of the event in one spot, and you also can follow us on Instagram and Facebook. You can read more in-depth coverage in the Nov. 18 issue of the Chronicle.