Course designer Richard Jeffery had a lot on his mind as he planned the show jumping course for this year’s Rolex Kentucky CCI****. In addition to designing a test for a group of horses that jumped a four-star cross-country course the previous day, Jeffery also had the added challenge of placing his course in a new, impressive stadium on virgin footing that had never hosted a hoof in competition.

So it was no surprise that when a reporter asked Jeffery before the competition to predict the number of clear rounds he’d see, Jeffery declined to hazard a guess.

“If this were a grand prix I could give you a number,” said Jeffery, who has designed the Rolex Kentucky show jumping course for the past 12 years since it became a four-star event. “But these horses are coming in here tired and maybe a little stiff. And with a new surface and a whole new arena with impressive stands, it’s hard to say how they’ll react.”

As it turned out, 15 horse-and-rider combinations posted clear rounds over Jeffery’s 13-fence course, and the top three—Lucinda Fredericks, Bettina Hoy and Buck Davidson—all retained their placings with double-clear rounds. By comparison, in each of the past two years (2008 and ’07) there were just two double-clear rounds over Jeffery’s courses, which shuffled the final standings dramatically.

“When I walked the course, it looked easier than in years past,” said Davidson, who placed third aboard My Boy Bobby. “I wasn’t sure if it was easier or if I was on better jumpers. It was solid looking, not too airy, and the horses seemed to relax in the stadium.”

Jeffery noted that this year he did plan a slightly softer course. Several related distances were set on the easy side, especially those where the horses would be jumping toward the crowded stands surrounding the arena. Jeffery did use maximum heights and widths on many fences, however, with the improved footing many horses easily soared over them.

“It was up to height and very visual, different looking jumps,” said Fredericks, whose double-clear round aboard Headley Britannia clinched the win. “The treble coming home after the triple bar was technical enough, but the ground [new footing in the arena] really made a difference. The horses love jumping off that ground.”

Most of the rails did occur toward the end of the course, where an influential triple bar 108′ to a triple combination of vertical-oxer-vertical caught tiring horses and riders.

“Basically, I was pleased with the course. A few got lucky and should have had 4 faults,” said Jeffery smiling. “But the idea was to send the foreign riders back home with a good feeling about Kentucky. Yes, it was a little less influential this year, but the worst thing would have been these countries’ riders going back home and saying we have to send our grade-A show jumpers to the [2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games].”