Zara Tindall and Tom McEwen head up British entries for Kentucky five-star
Three British names appear among the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event entries so far for the CCI5* event which runs 26–30 April, with the final cut-off for riders to throw their hat in the ring today (28 March).
Tom McEwen will make his first trip to the Kentucky Horse Park with the Lamberts’ and Deirdre Johnston’s JL Dublin, the horse who won the European Championships with Nicola Wilson in 2021. The Lamberts were long-standing owners with Nicola and have previously made the trip with horses they owned with her. Tom and JL Dublin were second at Boekelo CCI4*-L last autumn and this will be their first five-star as a combination.
Zara Tindall returns to Kentucky, the venue where she finished third in 2017 on High Kingdom, with Gleadhill House Stud’s Class Affair. This is not, though, Class Affair’s first US venture as he competed at Maryland 5-Star in 2021.
US-based British rider Leslie Law, the 2004 Olympic eventing champion, is slated to make his fourth Kentucky start on Tre’ Book’s Voltaire De Tre’, their best result being 10th in 2019.
Their fellow Brit David Doel is not yet appearing on the entry list but told H&H last week that he will be entering Gillian Jonas’ Apache Sauce for the event. Gillian is 90 this year and she owned Apache Sauce, who was ninth at Kentucky in 2007 with Mary King. She wants to go back to Kentucky while she is still in good health.
Australia’s Olympic team silver medallists Kevin McNab and Scuderia 1918 Don Quidam, who belongs to Scuderia 1918 Capital SRL and Kevin’s wife Emma, are also set to make the trip across the Atlantic. They finished sixth at Kentucky last year.
The other Kentucky Three-Day Event entries so far are all from US riders, with the exception of one Canadian, Hawley Bennett-Awad and the 19-year-old Jollybo.
The home side challenge includes three rides apiece for Tamie Smith (including Alexandra and Ellen Ahearn and Eric Markell’s world team silver medallist Mai Baum and last year’s Maryland 5-Star runner-up Danito, owned by Ruth Bley), Liz Halliday-Sharp, Buck Davidson, Jennie Saville (née Brannigan) and Will Coleman.
Phillip Dutton, the most recent American winner of Kentucky, has just one ride in the mix at present, the syndicate-owned Z.
Boyd Martin, the most recent US winner of a five-star after his victory at Maryland in 2021, brings forward the Turners’ Tsetserleg TSF, a former Kentucky runner-up, and Club Contessa’s Contessa.
Lauren Nicholson has Jacqueline Mars’ Landmark’s Monte Carlo and Vermiculus in the line-up, although Vermiculus is also entered at Badminton Horse Trials the week after Kentucky, so may well not appear at the US spring five-star if he makes the trip to Britain.
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