Gina Miles and Phillip Dutton Within Ten Points of Individual Lead

US Drops to Seventh as Germans Impress in Eventing at 2008 Olympic Games
By Joanie Morris

Hong Kong, China – It was an interesting cross-country day at the Beas River venue today as 70 horses took on Mike Etherington-Smith’s eight minute cross country course. Not one horse achieved the optimum time, and Australia’s Shane Rose (riding All Luck) was the only pair to have single digit time penalties. The Germans, on 158.10, took a slim lead over dressage winners, Australia (162.00), in the team portion of the competition. Great Britain rebounded to third on 173.70.

The American team had a some unfortunate mistakes that proved to be incredibly costly. They plummeted from third after the dressage to seventh on a score of 234.00. Veteran rider Amy Tryon set off on Mark Hart’s Poggio in her usual role as the pathfinder but a mistake at fence 10, where the 16-year-old Thoroughbred left a leg, stumbled badly twice and Tryon was ejected. With the new FEI rule (fall of rider is cause for elimination) enforced beginning August 1, Tryon walked home after falling off. 

‘I’m not sure what happened,” said Tryon from Duvall, WA. “I need to watch the tape to figure out exactly what happened. The course was riding like we expected up to that point. It’s busy and the time is going to be hard to make.”

Tryon’s prediction proved accurate as no one got close the optimum time. The terrain played a huge role, the course was twisty and undulating. Temperatures were moderate for this time of year, fortunately the sun never appeared and it rained intermittently throughout the day.

Miles was the next American on course, riding 17.3 hand McKinlaigh – the giant horse was one of the few that was able to find a rhythm and his giant stride ate up the ground. Miles, from Creston, CA has never had a jumping cross-country penalty on Thom Schulz and Laura Coats’ Irish Sport Horse gelding, and they never looked in danger of changing their record. 

“He’s amazing,” said Miles. “He stays so rideable. The turns are hard to negotiate and it was hard to go as fast. I think he’s the best horse in the world. He can do it all.”

The pair sits fifth on a score of 56.10 after adding 16.8 time faults. They are tied with Great Britain’s Mary King and Call Again Cavalier. Hinrich Romeike and Marius lead the way on 50.20, half a point ahead of his teammate Ingrid Klimke (on Abraxxas) so the competition remains very close going into show jumping.

“It was very hard work and very twisty” said Romeike. “I was smiling when he was jumping so well and he did what may have been the job of his life.”

Becky Holder and Courageous Comet looked phenomenal in the early part of the course as they cruised through the Beas River countryside only to misjudge their line at 21a, the first element of the dragon fence. The 13-year-old Thoroughbred gelding ran out to the right and when Holder tried to correct her mistake she inadvertently crossed her tracks.

“I didn’t stick to my plan, but my horse was really good,” said Holder after she picked up 60 penalties for her mistake. In a split second, the US hopes for a medal changed.

Veteran Karen O’Connor set out on relatively inexperienced Mandiba with all the pressure for a quick clear round from Joan Goswell’s 9-year-old Irish Thoroughbred gelding. Unfortunately they ran into trouble at fence 9, a massive downhill brush four strides to a narrow. Mandiba misread the second element and ran out.

“I knew going out, that what I needed to do was stretching the educational capabilities of my horse,” said O’Connor, 50. “I knew the goal was to go clear and within the minute of the time. That exercise came up too quick for him.”

Mandiba cruised around the rest of the course confidently until the second to last fence two angled brushes on a two-stride line that proved troublesome all day.

“My horse was giving me a magnificent round as I came down the hill I had some choices,” said O’Connor.  “I had a 20 but I was galloping pretty strong, I and the US had nothing to lose and everything to gain if I could have gotten it done.” Suddenly a team medal wasn’t the priority for the anchor rider.

Phillip Dutton set out on Bruce Duchossios’ Connaught with his foot to the floor. The flamboyant jumper isn’t the best galloper but jumping is never an issue. “Unfortunately our team isn’t having a good day,” said Dutton. “So I was riding for myself. I knew I had to take some chances to go as quickly as possible.”

Owned by Bruce Duchossios, the 15-year-old Irish Thoroughbred gelding picked up 19.60 time faults despite every effort by Dutton to go as fast as he could.

“I went as quick as I possibly could,” said Dutton who rode for Australia in the last three Olympic Games (winning two Gold medals). “He not the fastest horse, I can’t see where I could have gone faster. The ground really backed the horses off and they didn’t want to go. He is a magnificent jumper, even if he is tired, he still jumps very well.”

The pair is in 14th place on 60.20, exactly 10 points from a gold medal.

Two teams got all their riders around clear, the Australians and the Swedes, the first German rider, Frank Olstholt had one refusal but they certainly learned from his mistake and it was the only one they made all day.

The dressage leader, Australian Lucinda Fredericks picked up too many time faults to hold on, 27.20 time faults dropped her down to 11th.

The biggest jump up the leaderboard of the day was Rose who after being a disappointing 46th after the dressage to 16th on his masterful round before 18,000 ticket holders. The course claimed veterans and rookies alike, Andrew Nicholson and Lord Killinghurst fell at the second to last after looking certain to have the fastest time of the day. 

The final horse inspection is at 4 p.m. giving the horses plenty of time to recover from their round trip to Beas River from Sha Tin. They arrived back to Sha Tin this afternoon. Show Jumping begins under the lights at 7.15 tomorrow evening.

The dressage horses all passed their first horse inspection Sunday afternoon, the US Team looked particularly good. Brentina (Debbie McDonald), Mythilus (Courtney King-Dye), Neruda (Michael Barisone) and Ravel (Steffen Peters) looked incredible fit and beautifully turned out. Their first day of competition is Wednesday, August 13th. The competition begins at 7.15 pm and the US drew 11th out of 11 teams.

The show jumpers all will spend 10 minutes per team in the main arena for familiarization tonight. They begin competing on August 15th.