Lexington, Ky.—Aug. 30

The awards ceremony for the $60,000 Adequan USEA Advanced Final at the USEA American Eventing Championships was a muted affair. Rather than spraying each other with champagne, the top three finishers—Will Coleman, Boyd Martin and Phillip Dutton—instead wrote “Get Well Liz!” on the back of Coleman’s oversized winner’s check to send a message to their fellow competitor Liz Halliday, who underwent brain surgery following a fall on cross-country Thursday with Shanroe Cooley.

“I think first thing on certainly my mind all day has been Liz, and just really wishing her best possible recovery, and sending her family and all the connections as much support as we can give them,” Coleman said. “This all seems very small potatoes in comparison. So just hoping she’s going to be back and just really pulling for her.”

Coleman took the win on Diabolo with a final score of 36.0. The gelding started the weekend in a tie for fifth in dressage and added 7.6 time penalties on cross-country to move up to second. They show jumped clear this evening but added 0.4 time penalties. Martin and Commando 3, who were tied for fourth after dressage and moved up to third after cross-country, jumped double clear this evening to also finish on a score of 36.0. Because Coleman was closer to the optimum time on cross-country, he took the win.

“I think a lot of the horse,” he said about the 12-year-old Holsteiner (Diarado—Roulett M, Aljano 2) owned by the Diabolo Group, adding that he’s using the AEC as a preparatory event for the gelding’s five-star debut at the Mars Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill this autumn. “That’s a big question for him, but I think he’s a quality horse.”

But Coleman made clear that his injured Paris Olympic teammate was more of a priority than talking about the results of the AEC.

“Obviously this is a great win, but the grand scheme of things, I just don’t want to talk about it too much,” he said. “I just feel strongly that what’s going on with Liz is just far more important. And I just, out of respect to her and her family and all her people, connections, owners, grooms, everybody, I know they’re going through a lot. This doesn’t really matter.”

Martin and “Connor” put in a double-clear over the show jumping track to finish second. Dutton moved up from a tie for eighth after dressage to fourth after cross-country and was ultimately third on Possante. Martin had lead over the first two days on his veteran Tsetserleg TSF, but the gelding had three rails to finish sixth.

See the complete scores here.