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U.S. Eventing Contingent Aims for High Honors at the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event presented by MARS EQUESTRIAN

Land Rover/USEF CCI5* Eventing National Championship on the line

by US Equestrian Communications Department | Apr 24, 2019, 5:48 PM

Lexington, Ky. – The Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event presented by MARS EQUESTRIAN (LRK3DE) is set to begin at the Kentucky Horse Park following the first horse inspection on April 24. A field of 41 horses were presented at the trot up ready to contest the only CCI5* in the Western hemisphere. A total of eight countries will be represented in the 2019 competition, with the United States’ entries making up 62% of the field. LRK3DE also serves as the Land Rover/USEF CCI5* Eventing National Championship presented by MARS EQUESTRIAN. The highest-placed U.S. combination will earn the national champion title and be presented with the Roger Haller Trophy.

Phillip Dutton presents Z at the LRK3DE (Photo by Alex Banks for US Equestrian)

Competition gets underway on Thursday, April 25, beginning with the first of two days of dressage tests. The U.S.’s Caroline Martin and Islandwood Captain Jack will kick off the competition beginning at 10:00 a.m. EST. Watch wall-to-wall coverage of the LRK3DE on the USEFNetwork.

Three past Land Rover/USEF CCI4* Eventing National Champions will compete for another prestigious title as the championship transitions to the CCI5* designation. Chasing his sixth title, 2018 reserve national champion and the 2008 winner of the LRK3DE, Phillip Dutton (West Grove, Pa.), will ride his FEI World Equestrian Games ™ (WEG) Tryon 2018 mount, Z, an 11-year-old Zangersheide gelding owned by Thomas Tierney, Simon Roosevelt, Suzanne Lacy, Ann Jones, and Caroline Moran.

The two-time (2014, 2016) national champion Lauren Kieffer (The Plains, Va.) enters two of Jacqueline Mars’s horses: Vermiculus, a 12-year-old Anglo-Arabian gelding, and Paramount Importance, a 12-year-old Holsteiner gelding, in his five-star debut. Three-time national champion Buck Davidson (Reddick, Fla.) will compete three horses at the LRK3DE. He will ride LRK3DE veterans Copper Beach, Sherrie Martin and Carl Segal’s 13-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding, and Park Trader, Carl and Cassandra Segal’s 17-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding. Both horses completed the event with Davidson in 2018. Davidson will also give Jak My Style, Roberto and Kathleen Cuca’s 14-year-old Thoroughbred gelding, his first experience at the five-star level.

Ariel Grald presents Leamore Master Plan at LRK3DE (Photo by Andrea Evans/US Equestrian)

Fellow WEG Tryon 2018 combinations Boyd Martin (Cochranville, Pa.) and Tsetserleg, Christine Turner’s 12-year-old Trakehner gelding, and Will Coleman (Gordonsville, Va.) and Tight Lines, The Conair Syndicate’s 12-year-old French Thoroughbred gelding, will also contest the field. Other notable U.S. combinations vying for the title include Liz Halliday-Sharp (Ocala, Fla.) and Deniro Z, The Deniro Syndicate and Ocala Horse Properties’ 11-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding, and Doug Payne (Aiken, S.C.) and his, Jessica Payne, and Debi Crowley’s 15-year-old Trakehner gelding.  

Several U.S. combinations will look to gather more experience at the CCI5* level this week. U.S. Eventing Development Potential Program participants Hallie Coon (Ocala, Fla.) and Celien, her and Helen Coon’s 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare, and Ariel Grald (Vass, N.C.) in her LRK3DE debut with Leamore Master Plan, Anne Eldridge’s 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding, will look to tackle the LRK3DE course alongside fellow U.S. Eventing Development Pre-Elite combinations. The Development Pre-Elite combinations competing include Halliday-Sharp and Deniro Z and Caroline Martin (Miami Beach, Fla.) and Islandwood Captain Jack, her and Sherrie Martin’s 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding.

 

Competition Information

LRK3DE begins with dressage on Thursday and Friday, beginning at 10:00 a.m. EST both days. Dressage draw lists can be found here.

On Saturday, combinations will contest Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games course designer Derek di Grazia’s highly technical cross-country course for the eighth year at the LRK3DE. The first combination will leave the start box at 11:00 a.m. EST. Finally, on Sunday, the third and final phase of jumping will see combinations look to conquer Richard Jeffery’s course as they seek the LRK3DE and Land Rover/CCI5* Eventing National Championship presented by MARS EQUESTRIAN title beginning at 1:00 p.m. EST.

Start times are subject to change, so please visit the LRK3DE website for updated ride times, schedule of events, and scoring.

For pillar-to-post coverage of the LRK3DE, tune into the USEF Network. The live stream will broadcast worldwide. Not a US Equestrian member? Sign up for a free fan membership using promo code LRK3DE19 to access the stream.

For viewers in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, The Netherlands, Germany, and Australia watch the coverage on Horse & Country TV. Sign up to watch here.

 

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Catch up on behind-the-scenes coverage of the LRK3DE on USEF Network Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts as well as USA Eventing on Facebook. Use #USAEventing.

The USEF International High Performance Programs are generously supported by the USET Foundation, USOC, and USEF sponsors and members.