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Montgomery At The Top After Day Two Of The Rolex

Dressage at the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event is concluded and a local rider has taken the lead. WUKY’s Samantha Lederman has this report from the Kentucky Horse Park.

Clark Montgomery, who rode in the Olympic Games in Rio last summer, has spent the last six years in England, honing his skills as an event rider, but when his daughter Vivian was born last year, he and his wife decided to move back to the USA. After some deliberation they decided to make Lexington, Kentucky their home and moved here permanently this Spring.

Friday morning he danced into a commanding lead at the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event on Loughan Glen, and no-one, not even reigning Olympic and Rolex Champion Michael Jung could catch him on his mare Fischerrocana; they are currently in 2nd place.

Lying third after the dressage phase is three time winner Kim Severson on a new horse to Kentucky, Cooley Cross Border. 

However, everything could change by Saturday evening again after a full day of cross country action at the Kentucky Horse Park over Derek Di Grazia’s course which all the riders are describing as tough and technical. Heat and humidity is also likely to be a factor with temperatures forecast to be in the high eighties. 

Any mistake cross country will plummet a rider down the order, and even a matter of seconds over the optimum time can make the difference between winning and losing. Montgomery’s horse has a checkered record at this level, Jung’s is spotless, and Seversen’s is competing at 4* for the first time.

Cross country starts Saturday at 10 a.m. with horses leaving the start box every four minutes, and spectators can walk the whole course and watch each fence being jumped up close and personal.

Listeners might remember Lederman and her English accent from when she was a morning news anchor on WUKY from 1999 to 2001.
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