Lexington, Kentucky…..Bluegrass country and the first five star event of 2025. Five horses left from Chedington and four rocked up to the Kentucky Horse Park. One can only imagine Happy Boy’s expression as he watched Copper Beach ( Sean), Cosby Green’s 19 year old 5 star stalwart, saunter out of quarantine and head for retirement at Cosby’s family farm in Lexington whilst he himself headed to the Kentucky Horse Park. Happy has done everything in his power to be that person as opposed to fronting up at Kentucky this week but he is on site, in form and hopefully will rise to the occasion as he has so many times in the past.
Falco is a seasoned world class traveler having Maryland under his belt and much prefers that to the three day slog down to Pratoni del Vivaro which he did for his double bronze medal at the Worlds in 2022. Jarillo (Milo) has never flown before but found it much to his liking as everyone faces the same way in the airplane which is his preferred way of life to be fair. Hiarado (Jools) would be a novice at flying as well but she is no stranger to being a strong opinionated girl so the sort that would normally really annoy the cabin crew, although since this cabin crew are all pro flying grooms they just admired her confidence. And Happy is another flying virgin but was bemused enough be pretty sure that this is how all holidays start according to the gossip on the yard. And he’s the type to have packed his speedos for sure.
Clarke Johnstone and Menlo Park (Jacko) also flew from the UK and Monica Spencer and Artist (Max) are already US based so its a strong Kiwi contingent ready for business. Harry Meade has 2 runners and Michi Jung has the amazing Chipmunk in from Europe as well, making up the 40 strong field for Kentucky this year.
Weather looks pretty perfect for eventing for once: nice today, some cloud and the odd shower but warmish for dressage, a cool and cloudy cross country day and 21 and sunny for showjumping. Well, that’s the forecast but as we all know, we can send a bunch of girls up into space for 11 minutes these days but still cant guess what day it would be good for a BBQ with any accuracy.
Tim is the pathfinder with Milo, Happy sits in the middle, late on Thursday afternoon and Falco is late on Friday afternoon.
Times in USA local time are: Thursday: 1.30 Milo, 3.08 Jools, 3.56 Happy. Friday: 3.18 Falco.
The only way to watch outside of the US is on https://www.clipmyhorse.tv which is not cheap.
The best website for info and interviews and ride times etc is https://eventingnation.com which has amazing coverage.
The horses jog at 2pm US time today and generally in the US the jogs at 4 and 5 star resemble guests either heading for a stag/hen do or the actual wedding itself. It’s a whole lot different to the tweed set in the UK and well worth checking out the photos on Eventing Nation tomorrow for sure.
Owners outing to Gainesway Farm Stud with thanks to Clay Green. Photo credit Rachel Good.
