www.eventingetc.com

The winner, Phillip Dutton, said, " I was disappointed about the way it worked out with Woodburn (12 jumping and 2 time faults) so I wanted to redeem myself on Connaught. The horse never, ever wants to hit a fence.

"I have had some trouble making the time with him (in Show Jumping). I was like a little Pony Club kid galloping to the finish and looking at the clock."

Becky Holder, who placed second with Courageous Comet, noted, "I would rather have won. I was thrilled with my horse. I kind of expected clean round out of Phillip. I felt I was able to keep my concentration."

Missy Ransehousen was "really thrilled" with her horse Critical Decision. "I wanted to keep him relaxed. I felt we really worked well together."

The Vice President of Rolex salutes Phillip Dutton, Becky Holder and Missy Ranshousen with champagne.

1. Phillip Dutton, Connaught - 41.7 + 0 = 41.7

2. Becky Holder, Corageous Comet - 39.3 + 8 = 47.3

3. Missy Ransehousen, Critical Decision - 53.3 + 4 jumping = 57.3

4. Stephen Bradley's Brandenburg's Joshua - 57.5 + 0 = 57.5

5. Kim Severson, Tipperary Liadhnan - 54.6 + 8 faults SJ = 62.6

6. Karen O'Connor, Theodore O'Connor - 58.2 + 8 = 66.2

7. Jennifer Wooten, The Good Witch - 59.3 + 8 = 67.3

8. Stephen Bradley, From - 47.8 + 20 jumping = 67.8

9. Boyd Martin, Neville Bardos - 55.0 + 12 Jumping, 2 time = 69

10. Phillip Dutton, Woodburn - 55.1 + 12 jumping, 2 time = 69.0

11. Cammie O'Rourke (AUS), Kirby Park Irish Jester - 55.1 + 12 faults SJ = 69.1

12. Mike Winter (CAN), Kingpin - 59.0 + 12 = 71.0

* * * * *

Finally Phillip! Dutton Wins 2008 Rolex Kentucky CCI**** After Being Runner-Up Five Times Previously

By Joanie Morris

Lexington, KY – After five second place finishes with five different horses at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event Presented by Farnam, Phillip Dutton brought last year’s runner-up, Connaught, back to the Kentucky Horse Park and won convincingly with a masterful clear round in the show jumping.

The 15-year-old Irish Thoroughbred gelding, who is owned by Dutton’s longtime supporter Bruce Duchossios, put together three impressive phases and sealed the win with only one of two clear rounds in the final phase. The victory also crowns him the USEF National Champion for the second consecutive year. He was also 10th on Acorn Hill Farm’s Woodburn.

“This is a great horse,” said Dutton about Connaught. “He tries so hard.”

‘Simon’ represented Australia with Dutton at the 2006 World Equestrian Games, before Dutton became an American citizen and began riding for the U.S. in 2007. The hard-trying horse never was close to a rail today. Dutton rode his horse very forward to the fences and it paid off. They added nothing to their overnight score of 41.7.

“Simon never ever wants to hit a rail,” said Dutton. “If he does, it is because he tries so hard.”

Dutton, who lives in West Grove, PA, is a veteran of three Olympics (two of which were team gold medal efforts), three World Championships and just about every major competition in the world – but a four-star victory (and a watch) has always eluded him.

Until today.

Overnight leader Becky Holder, who didn’t have a rail in hand, had two down on an afternoon where eight faults was a worthy effort. Courageous Comet and Holder have been working diligently on their show jumping and it showed in their composure. They finished up second behind Dutton on a final score of 47.3.

“I’m absolutely thrilled with my horse, thrilled with my round,” said Holder. “I’m not too sad to come second to Phillip Dutton. I expected a clear round out of Phillip. Connaught consistently jumps beautiful clear rounds. I mentally prepared for that.”

Holder, of Mendota Heights, MN, put on a professional performance all weekend beginning with a brilliant dressage mark. Riding for her husband Tom who owns Comet, their cross country was foot perfect and Holder was incredibly proud of her horse’s effort. Comet, a 13-year-old Thoroughbred was a success on the race track before he turned his hoof to eventing.

“I’m really proud of my horse and of my round,” said Holder after the show jumping. “We have been working very hard and will continue to keep trying to improve. This weekend has been a privilege and an honor.”

Missy Ransehousen jumped up the leaderboard to her best four-star finish ever, joining Dutton and Holder in that department. Ransehousen, who lives just down the road from Dutton in Unionville, PA, added just one rail to her dressage score with the 12-year-old Oldenburg gelding, Critical Decision. They finished 10 points behind Holder on a score of 57.3. Owned by her mother, dressage guru Jessica, Critical Decision cruised around the show jumping course having just the first fence of the final combination down.

“I was quite pleased with my horse,” said Ransehousen. “Usually with the crowd he gets very excited and his head goes up. My goal today was to get him through the course the best I could. I felt like we really worked together out there today.”

Stephen Bradley and Brandenburg’s Joshua jumped the only other clear round to finish fourth on 57.5, Kim Severson, who won this event three times with the mighty Winsome Adante (who was officially honored in a retirement ceremony today) was fifth with Tipperary Liadnhan on 62.6. Eventing’s super pony Theodore O’Connor and Karen O’Connor were sixth on a score of 66.2.

For complete results, please see: www.rk3de.org.

For more information please contact Joanie Morris, USEF High Performance Communications Manager at jmorris@usef.org.

* * * *

Dutton Scores First Victory At
Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, Presented by Farnam

For Immediate Release
Contact Marty Bauman (859) 357-8936 or info@classic-communications.com

Lexington, KY, April 27 - With a completely faultless show jumping round on Connaught, Phillip Dutton, of West Grove, Pa., scored his first victory in the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by Farnam.

Becky Holder, of Mendota Heights, Minn., lowered two rails with Courageous Comet to surrender the lead she'd narrowly held since Thursday. Dutton's final score was 41.7 penalties; Holder's was 47.3.

Missy Ransehousen, of Unionville, Pa., urged her Critical Decision to a four-fault score (one rail down) to climb from fourth to third place (57.3).

Stephen Bradley, of Leesburg, Va., surrendered second place on From by adding 20 jumping penalties, to finish eighth, but a faultless round on Brandenburg's Joshua catapulted him from 10th to fourth. Three-time winner Kim Severson, of Keene, Va., finished fifth, with 8 jumping faults on Tipperary Liadhnan. Dutton also claimed 10th on Woodburn.

Dutton, 44, had finished second at Rolex Kentucky five times previously. Connaught, owned by Bruce Duchossois, was making his fourth start at Rolex Kentucky, with a previous best finish of fourth place in 2006.

"It feels a lot better to win than to be second," said Dutton. "But, really, everybody else seemed more worried about it than I was." He said that only once before did he think he should have earned the Rolex watch that goes to the victor, on True Blue Girdwood at the 1998 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event.

Holder, 39, had entered show jumping in first place before, in 2006, eventually finishing 13th. "I would have rather won, but I'm thrilled with my round this time," said Holder.

She added that she expected Dutton and Connaught to jump faultlessly, so she knew the pressure would be on her, since he was just 2.4 penalties behind. "So I'd mentally prepared myself for that pressure, and I was pleased with the way I was able to keep my concentration and my focus," she said.

Ransehousen, 37, made her first start at Rolex Kentucky in 2007, finishing 16th after having one refusal on cross-country. Ransehousen bought Critical Decision, 12, as an unbroken 3-year-old and has now trained and competed him successfully to the sport's highest level. "I remember all his firsts," she said.

Ransehousen was also pleased with her four-fault round because large crowds can unnerve Critical Decision. "But I felt like we really worked together out there today," she said.

Rolex Kentucky is a U.S. Equestrian Federation selection trial for eventing this year. And with their performances, Dutton and Holder put themselves into strong contention to make the U.S. Olympic eventing team. (Ransehousen did not apply to the USEF to be an Olympic candidate.) But Dutton wouldn't speculate as to whether Connaught might be his Olympic mount, especially since he has three other horses who are candidates. This would be Dutton's first U.S. Olympic team, although he's ridden on three Olympic teams for his native Australia, winning team gold medals in 1996 and 2000.

Holder said she hadn't really considered whether she and her gray gelding would be riding at the Olympic equestrian events in Hong Kong. "Rolex has been my goal ever since last fall, and now I'm going to take him home, turn him out, and let him get as dirty as he possibly can," she said.

Some 20, 462 spectators cheered for the horses and riders as they jumped around the Sheila C. Johnson arena, over the course designed by Richard Jeffery of Great Britain. The four-day total of 103,521 is a new record for North America's only fur-star three-day event.

Watch all the action from the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by Farnam, through live video streaming, for $12.99 for four days, at www.rk3de.org. Video streaming of the entire event will still be available following the event's conclusion.

For full results, go to www.rk3de.org.

* * * *

DUTTON WINS FIRST LEG OF NEW HSBC FEI CLASSICS SERIES IN KENTUCKY

America's Philip Dutton stands top of the leaderboard in the HSBC FEI Classics series following his victory with Connaught at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day-Event in the USA today. (Phillip is pictured at the right below on the Cross Country. Michelle C. Dunn Photo.)

Lying third after dressage on a score of 41.3 the 44 year old rider improved to second place when adding just 0.4 in Saturday's cross-country phase and a clear show jumping round, one of only two in the entire competition, then clinched the final result.

Becky Holder was runner-up with Courageous Comet, two show jumping errors snatching victory from her grasp after a long-time lead, and Missy Ransehousen slotted into third with Critical Decision.

Boyd Martin was the only non-American to sneak into the top-10 line-up, the Australian steering his horse Neville Bardos to complete with a total of 69.0 penalties which saw him share ninth spot with Dutton and his second ride, Woodburn.

Holder established the early lead with a good dressage test earning a mark of 39.3 and was still out in front going into Saturday's cross-country phase where a great clear across the fixed fences further bolstered her position. The 39 year old rider was held on course due to a rider fall and accidently reset her stopwatch to zero, but her in-built instinct worked well because she returned the only clear round of the leading group while Courageous Comet lived up to his name - "he was still full of run at the end" Holder said, "and he'd just hit another gear every time I put my hands down to pat him".

Dutton's Irish-bred 15 year old, Connaught, was also enjoying his tour of familiar territory. This was the horse's fourth start at Rolex Kentucky and the rider said afterwards "sometimes I wish he didn't try quite so hard over the jumps, because it slows him down, and the galloping is really hard for him. But there's not a better horse to ride over fences. This is the fastest I've ever gone with him (in Kentucky). He just gets better and better all the time" he added.

From a starting field of 40, a total of 13 completed the cross-country track without either jumping or time faults and 12 completed with time faults only. Two riders finished despite falls, three retired after refusals including Britain's Polly Stockton with Charles Owens Tangleman and four were eliminated - three of these due to horse falls.

Amongst the latter was Laine Ashker who suffered multiple injuries in a fall at fence five with Frodo Baggins. The rider is now reported to be in stable condition. Following intensive veterinary attention Frodo Baggins was later euthanised.

Today's show jumping track took a heavy toll and was highly influential on the final result. Stephen Bradley and Brandenburg's Joshua were the only partnership other than the eventual winners to leave the course intact and this moved them up from eighth place to fourth in the final analysis, while Missy Rasenhousen rocketed up from twelfth to third when adding just four show jumping penalties to her dressage mark.

For Dutton, Connaught's victory was very special indeed. "I've had him since 2000 and I'm very proud of him" he said of his Kentucky course specialist. "He was fourth here two years ago and second last year so it is great to come back and take the win this time around".

The HSBC FEI CLASSICS series, which links the top five three-day-events in the world including Kentucky (USA), Badminton (GBR), Luhmuhlen (GER), Burghley (GBR) and Pau (FRA), offers a prize-fund of US$1 million over the next three years and US$150,000 to the winner at the end of each season when there is also prize-money down to fifth place.

Dutton is planning to bid for some of that loot after competing at the Olympic Games in Hong Kong this summer. "I'm not quite sure of my plan yet but I'd like to do Burghley and Pau if I can," he said.

HSBC's Group Head of Sponsorship, Giles Morgan, says "HSBC is delighted to become a partner of the FEI and a major sponsor of Eventing. It is a sport that provides equal opportunity for men and women - and is truly global in scale. We look forward to an exciting partnership - particularly the development of the HSBC FEI CLASSICS".

RESULT :
1. Connaught (Philip Dutton) USA - Dressage 41.3, XC 0.4, Jumping 0 = 41.7; 2, Courageous Comet (Becky Holder) USA 39.3, 0, 8 = 47.3; 3, Critical Decision (Missy Ransehousen) USA 53.5, 0, 4 = 57.3; 4, Brandenbergs Joshua (Stephen Bradley) USA 50.7, 0, 6.8 = 57.5; 5, Tipperary Liadhnan (Kim Severson) USA 54.6, 0, 8 = 62.6; 6, Theodore O'Connor (Karen O'Connor) USA 58.2, 0, 8 = 66.2; 7, The Good Witch (Jennifer Wooton) USA 56.1, 3.2, 8 = 67.3; 8, From (Stephen Bradley) USA 42.6, 5.2, 20 = 67.8; Equal 9, Woodburn (Philip Dutton) USA 55.0, 0, 14 = 69.0 and Neville Bardos (Boyd Martin) Aus 55.0, 0, 14 = 69.0.

STANDINGS AFTER FIRST LEG OF SERIES IN KENTUCKY:

1. Philip Dutton - 17 points (15 points for first place, 2 points for ninth place)
2. Becky Holder - 12
3. Missy Ransehousen - 10
4. Stephen Bradley - 11 (8 points for fourth place, 3 points for eighth place)
5. Kim Severson - 6
6. Karen O'Connor - 5
7. Jennifer Wooton - 4
8. Boyd Martin - 2

HOW IT WORKS:

The HSBC FEI CLASSICS is a new FEI series linking the five 4-Star Eventing competitions currently on the international calendar.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS 2008:
1, Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event (USA) 24-27 April; 2, Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials (GBR) 1-4 May; 3, Luhmuhlen CCI**** presented by EON (Ger) 12-15 June; 4, Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials (GBR) 4-7 September; 5, FINAL - Les Etoiles de Pau (FRA) 22-26 October.

POINTS SYSTEM:
Points will be awarded to the top ten riders at each event as follows:
1st: 15 points
2nd: 12 points
3rd: 10 points
4th: 8 points
5th: 6 points
6th : 5 points
7th: 4 points
8th: 3 points
9th: 2 points
10th: 1 point

PRIZE MONEY:
HSBC will contribute US$1million to the series over the next three years. At the end of each season, the five riders with the greatest number of points will be awarded PRIZE-MONEY as follows:

Series Champion - US$ 150,000; 2nd - US$ 75,000; 3rd - US$ 50,000; 4th - US$ 33,333; 5th - US$ 25,000.

This represents the biggest prize pot on offer in the sport of eventing on an annual basis.

Editor's Note: This leaves but one question - WHAT DOES HSBC MEAN?????

It is some kind of a bank, so I am guessing the "BC" means Banking Corporation; but, what do the letters "HS" stand for???? Talk about hiding identity under unexplained initials!

* * * * *

Winsome Adante Retired

Linda Wachtmeister's Winsome Adante, a three time winner of the Rolex Kentucky CCI **** and multiple time representative of the United States in international competitions, was retired at Rolex Kentucky on Sunday afternoon.

Kim Severson and Winsome Adante

Linda Wachtmeister, Kim Severson and Winsome Adante

Laine Ashker's Condition:

Dr. William Brooks, the Chief Medical Officer for the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event, reported that Laine Ashker was in the ICU at University of Kentucky Hospital in critical condition.

(Laine is pictured at the right below jumping the Lighthouse on the Island at the Head of the Lake on Mazetto her first of two horses. Mazetto finished the Cross Country in sixteenth place on one of the thirteen double clear runs.

Laine said of her ride on Mazetto,"It was really cool! It was the ride of a lifetime! Mike (Ethrington-Smith) always builds a great course and everything rode really well.You just have to be sure you keep your lines when your horse gets tired."

Laine's fall occurred on Frodo Baggins, her second horse.)

A statement from Laine's family said, in part, that they would like to thank everyone for their "incredible support and well wishes."

It continued to say, "The good news is there was no injury to either brain or spinal cord. While Laine suffered multiple injuries, including a badly broken jaw, broken ribs and clavicle, the main concern is her collapsed lungs. She is progressing normally and is currently in reasonably stable condition in the ICU unit at the University of Kentucky Hospital. We appreciate your continued support and heart felt prayers.

Laine's Family

The Final Veterinarian Examination, Sunday Morning:

Three horses were sent to holding, Waylon Roberts (CAN) Paleface (18th); Bonner Carpenter's Acapulco Jazz (20th), and Karen O'Connor's Hugh Knows (27th). Paleface and Acapulco Jazz did not pass upon re-examination. Karen withdrew Hugh Knows in the Holding Box.

Two horses were not presented: Laine Ashker's Mazetto (16th), as Laine was still hospitalized, and Heidi White's Northern Spy (30th).

Twenty-eight horses went forward to Show Jump on Sunday afternoon.

News from Saturday:

Frodo Baggins, ridden by Laine Ashker, was injured while jumping Fence 5, The Flower Basket, Saturday afternoon at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event. The horse fell on the landing side of the fence. He was immediately attended by a team of veterinarians.

Laine Ashkersustained injuries but was conscious, talking and able to move all extremities. She was transported by helicopter to the University of Kentucky Hospital She was put under the care of the Emergency and Trauma Services staff.

Frodo Baggins was given intravenous fluids and supportive medications for shock and pain. After he was stabilized, he was sedated and transported by horse ambulace to Hagyard Equine Medical Institute where he was immediately attended by emergency personnel.

Further tests showed that Frodo Baggins had sustained a fracture at the base of his skull, as well as a severe lung injury. The prognosis was very poor. A representative of the family concurred that euthanasia was the most humane option for the horse. A complete Necropsy examination will be performed.

Everyone at the event is saddened by the loss of trhis brave horse. We extend our most sincere condolences to Laine Ashker and her family.

* * *

The Quiet Man, ridden by Sarah Hansel, was injured while jumping Fence 13, the Footbridge, Saturday afternoon at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event. The horse fell on the landing side of the fence and was lame in the right front leg.

The Quiet Man was transported by Horse Ambulance to Hagyard Equine Medical Institute. X-Rays showed that the horse has sustained a fracture of the right distal scapula. The horse is currently resting comfortably under observation in his stall at the hospital.

The Quiet Man was reeximined by specialists at Hagyard on Sunday morning. This examination confirmed that the horse has sustained a severe fracture of the distal scapula and shoulder joint of the right frontleg.

The prognosis for recovery was very poor. The attending veterinarians and the horse's owners agreed that, for the horse's welfare, euthanasia was the best course of action. A necropsy will be performed.

We extend our condolences to Sarah Hansel and her family.