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Five Canadians Place in The Top Twenty at CCI 4* Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event

May 16, 2008

Ottawa, ON --- In one of the best performances in many years, five Canadians hoping to gain a berth at the 2008 Olympic Games earned top a twenty placing in the CCI 4* Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event, held April 24-27, at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, USA. Five of the six Canadians contesting the 2008 Rolex completed the cross country course with no jumping penalties and three within the time.

Michael Winter, originally of Toronto, ON, and now residing in Newnan, GA, lead the Canadians with a 12th place finish aboard Kingpin, a 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by The Kingpin Syndicate. The pair kicked off Rolex with a very respectable dressage performance, scoring 52.6 to put them in 10th place. This was followed by a brilliant performance over Mike Etherington-Smith’s (GBR) cross-country course. None of the obstacles proved to be a problem, and they crossed the finish line with no jumping faults, and just 6.4 time faults, which put them in 13th spot heading in to the show jumping round. The pair finished in 12th place overall after incurring 12 faults in what proved to be a difficult show jumping test for all competitors for a final score of 71.0 overall.

“I almost did as well as I wanted to,” noted Winter, who was a member of the silver medal winning 2007 Pan Am Team. “I am happy with our good finish. As a team we are getting better and making great strides. David O’Connor’s (the Canadian Eventing International Technical Advisor) commitment to coaching the team is really paying off.”

Finishing close behind Winter was Sandra Donnelly of Calgary, AB, and her 2007 Pan American Games partner, Buenos Aires, an 11-year-old Canadian Warmblood mare. Donnelly and her mare were in 20th following dressage with a score of 55.6. Adding only 11.2 time penalties on cross-country and 12 jumping faults in the show jumping Donnelly finished in 15th with a score of 78.8.

Olympian Hawley Bennett and 2004 Athens Olympics partner, the veteran Livingstone, an 18-year-old Canadian thoroughbred gelding owned by the rider and her mother, were in 25th place on a dressage score of 58.7 penalties. Bennett, a native of Langley, BC, had a perfect cross-county performance but added 24 faults in show jumping to finish in 17th with a score of 82.7.

2007 Pan American Eventing Team member Kyle Carter, of Calgary AB and currently based in Citra, FL, riding Madison Park, a 10-year-old Thoroughbred gelding owned by Carter and Nicole Shinton, finished right behind Bennett, in 18th spot, with a score of 86.4. With penalty points of 70.4 after dressage, Carter also had one of 11 fault-free cross-country rides, adding 16 faults in his show jumping.

Selena O’Hanlon of Elgin, ON, and Colombo, the 13-year-old Swedish Warmblood gelding, owned by Elaine and Michael Davies, finished in 20th place with a score of 97.2.

The winner of the 2008 Rolex was Phillip Dutton, formerly of Australia and now representing the USA, riding Connaught, with whom Dutton finish in second place in 2007. American Becky Holder and Courageous Comet finished in second place and Missy Ransehousen, also of the United States, finished in third place riding Critical Decision.

The CCI 4* Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event is one of four, four-star level events in the world, and the only one held in North America. Rolex is a qualification trial for the Olympic Games Eventing competition, which will take place in Hong Kong, China, August 9–12, 2008.

Full results are available on the official Rolex Kentucky Event web site www.rk3de.org.

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