United States Eventing Association

Bromont, Quebec, Canada—June 6—True to its reputation, the MARS Bromont CCI cross-country course exerted its influence—both in terms of jumps as well as optimum time – on Saturday as competitors took to Derek di Grazia and Jay Hambly’s well-designed tracks with persistent rain hovering overhead throughout the day.

The first of the day to see in the CCI4*-L was 2024 Olympian Caroline Pamukcu, who piloted the 11-year-old Thoroughbred gelding HSH Double Sixteen to a clear round with just 4.0 time penalties added to her starting score for a total of 39.5 penalties after two phases. After the morning withdrawal of dressage leaders Sharon White and Claus 63, the door had been opened for a new leader to emerge and it was Pamukcu who stepped up to claim the position.

HSH Double Sixteen, who is owned by the Double Sixteen Partnership, initially raced in Ireland before beginning his eventing career with Irish rider Leila Barker. Pamukcu picked him up with the intention of reselling him, but after three years in which the gelding went unsold, Pamukcu struck up a partnership of her own with him. He’s become one of her most consistent CCI4*-S horses, winning four times at the level. Today further cemented his status as a true cross-country horse – one she often refers to as a “Jack Russell” type of personality.

“He's kind of a weird little pony, but I really have so much fun with him,” Pamukcu said. “He's like a little dirt bike. He gave me a really good feeling in the beginning; everything rode to plan. I should have done a better job on dressage, but I wasn't so wound up because I saw we were gonna have rain, then I walked the course before I did my dressage test, so I knew I didn't have to be so stressed.”

Pamukcu complimented the course and Derek di Grazia’s design; the Tokyo Olympic designer is reputed for building fair courses that strategically use the ground and present questions that are clear and fair to the horses. “He was very kind here at this course,” Pamukcu elaborated. “He gave you options in all the combinations, so if you wanted to add a step to make it a little bit easy on the horses, you could, or you could do a more direct line, like more of the five-star line. It was really kind of them.”

Pamukcu will also take third place into show jumping on Sunday with Mollie Hoff and Sherrie Martin’s She’s The One after the post-cross-country withdrawal of Arden Wildasin and Sunday Times. She’s The One, an 11-year-old Anglo-European Sporthorse mare, finished the day free of jumping penalties and added 13.6 time penalties to her score for a two-day total of 48.6.

“At Kentucky, she hit a couple of [frangible] pin jumps and lost her confidence, so I took an extra second and made sure I jumped the [similar types of fences] well, and she was just great,” she commented.

Sandwiched in between Pamukcu’s two horses is 2025 MARS Bromont CCI4*-L winner and U.S. Olympian Lauren Nicholson, this time returning with Ms. Jacqueline Mars’ Landmark’s Jungle’s Gold and running a clear cross-country with 12.8 time penalties added. They will take a two-day score of 45.8 into show jumping, a shade more than a pole’s distance behind Pamukcu and HSH Double Sixteen.

Initially, Nicholson had taken the 11-year-old Holsteiner/Irish Sport Horse cross bred by Ms. Mars to the Tryon International CCI4*-L in May, but wound up choosing instead to come to Bromont for his big Long format run. This track, Nicholson felt, was more on par with the previous Long the horse had run in Scotland at Scone Palace last year, where he finished eighth overall. Today’s performance proved Nicholson and her team had made the right call.

“It's a hard course for him to be quick on, because he can gallop all day long, but this course kind of suits to be quick. You need horses a little bit like [the type who] land and sprint off from things, and he needs a few strides to get up to speed,” Nicholson described. “But he's super rideable, and he just jumped everything in front of him, and I was really happy with him. Bromont is more of a kind of proper track fitness course for him as well.”

Nicholson described “Richie” as a horse that’s taken some time to fully mature in his body, and now he’s reached the point where he’s beginning to fill out. As a result, she now feels she can begin to really develop the horse for the future and the five-star level. Here, horsemanship truly comes into play as she’s needed to take time to get the horse competitive and strong at this level.

“You can press on them, but it just never really seems to get you there any faster,” she said. “He really stayed at the three-star level for a long time, and we, a little bit, bumped up, down, up, down [between levels]. It's really only in the last kind of 18 months that he's stopped growing and started filling out a lot. I finally feel like I’m kind of riding the same horse every day, so it just takes a while sometimes for those warmbloods to finish growing, and you can frustrate them and yourself by trying to make it happen. But the nice thing is once they're done growing, then you can kind of cruise on.”

Five horses will move forward to show jumping on Sunday in the CCI4*-S after one retirement on course today and some withdrawals, but sitting atop the pile is seven-time Olympian Phillip Dutton, maintaining his lead with Ann Lapides, Ann Jones, Neill Sites and Caroline Moran’s Denim. The pair accumulated 14.8 time penalties but held onto their lead with a two-phase score of 44.1. Denim is quite experienced at this level, and after an annoying Technical Elimination saw their CCI4*-L effort at Tryon International last month truncated, Dutton opted for the Short division this weekend.

“I wanted to have a good performance, and wanted to go quick, but save a little tank to build things up, but he couldn't have had a better round,” Dutton commented. “I was just so mad at myself at Tryon and I just thought this would be a better run for him. This is a great four-star [Long] but it’s pretty taxing on them too. He’d had a good build-up to Tryon, then to back off and try it again – we just settled on doing the short here.”

Dutton will have two horses qualified for the upcoming FEI Eventing World Championships at Aachen, with both Denim as well as the Possante Group’s Possante ready for upcoming team selection.

Dutton has one rail in hand over second-placed Jessica Phoenix and Makayla Rydzik’s Fluorescent Adolescent (48.3). Boyd Martin and the Fetiche des Rouges Syndicate’s Fetiche des Rouges are in third on a score of 50.7.

Canadian Olympic rider Colleen Loach, who bases nearby to Bromont Olympic Equestrian Park, moved up from second place with a quick-footed clear round today aboard the 8-year-old Chiaro Z Excalibur to overtake the lead in the CCI3*-L division. The Zangersheide gelding, who is owned by Peter Barry, was the CCI2*-L champion here at MARS Bromont in 2025 and went on to compete at the WFSBH FEI Eventing Young Horse World Breeding Championships in Le Lion d’Angers, France at the end of last season. Today, he showed more growth, maturity and ability to seek the flags on cross-country.

“He did the two-long here last year and he was definitely a lot more tired, especially muscle-wise and body-wise. He was more body tired last year. He looks much better after today compared to a year ago, so he’s getting stronger, muscling up, maturing. The thing I've been working on with him is that he kind of looks ahead for the jumps a little bit more. He's such a good boy, he just sees something at the last minute and he'll jump it, but I would like him to start thinking ahead and looking for the flags. I thought that he did that better today, so I was happy with that.”

“It's such an educational course with all the terrain,” Loach said of the course, designed by Canada’s Jay Hambly. “The questions are difficult, but they're fair to the horses, they understand them, and they tend to come out as better horses for them.”

Loach will not have a rail in hand over Brody Robertson’s show jumping track tomorrow, taking a two-day score of 42.1 into Sunday.

Ariel Grald moved from third into second with Annie Eldridge’s Obalix (42.3), and Arden Wildasin jumped from 10th into third with her own Dalegra (45.8).

It’s a weekend of foundation confirmation and confidence boosting for Dyri, a horse who has competed to the four-star level (and started at the five-star level) for the USA’s Lucienne Bellissimo. While this was a lower level course than what he has competed at, Bellissimo still had her goals in mind and found them met after today’s clear inside the time performance. She and Dyri, who is 14 this year, will remain on their dressage score of 26.1 ahead of show jumping.

“I really enjoyed today,” Bellissimo commented. “This event always takes some riding with the amazing terrain. It’s so educational for the horses and riders. There was plenty to jump in the two-star, which was perfect for Dyri, despite the levels I’ve run him at. He can be a spooky gelding and I wanted to be able to travel with him for his heart. he stayed on the bridle for the full distance, which was great to feel. Fingers crossed we keep him confident and he’ll give 100% at Morven Park later this year again at the CCI4*-L. His brain needs these runs, and I’m happy for him that he’s in the lead.”

Bellissimo will have one rail and some time in hand on Sunday. Seven-time Olympian Phillip Dutton will take second place overnight with Caroline Moran’s Darwinn on a score of 31.2, followed by fellow Olympian and World #5 Boyd Martin with Tamy Pollard’s Buba de Muze on a score of 32.0.

It was University of Tampa student Adelyn Reinhart’s day to shine on an influential CCI2*-L course. Reinhart and her 11-year-old Holsteiner mare Corona Life leapt from sixth into first place thanks to a speedy turn of foot even in the steady rain to stop the clock just one second over the optimum time. The pair will take a score of 36.7 and one rail in hand into Sunday’s show jumping.

Reinhart has accomplished many firsts with Corona Life, and she’s intentionally stayed at the Preliminary and two-star level to gain experience and confidence before considering a step up in level. That practice has paid off; they came here to Bromont in 2025 in this division, and their cross-country performance today felt even stronger than last year’s.

“Being in school, I've really taken my time to make sure we haven't gone through anything too quick,” she said. “This track today was kind of a true testament to our partnership. I know her so well, and she knows me, and we both have so much confidence and trust in each other that it makes these bigger tracks with the elements like the rain and the mud much easier than going out on a horse that you don't necessarily know.”

Reinhart is studying entrepreneurship and sales as she looks ahead to her junior year of college, balancing her riding with her schedule and training with upper-level riders like Meghan O’Donoghue (who is here coaching her and other students this weekend) and Alyssa Phillips, as well as Jonathan and Jennifer Holling in Florida. An aspiring professional rider, she also hopes to have her own business outside of horses to help sustain her riding career in the future.

Reinhart is tailed in the standings by Sarah Newman and Hang Time, who moved from fourth to second with a score of 44.1. Olivia Dutton and Dresden (owned by Caroline Moran and Evie Dutton) are in third place overnight with a score of 49.7.

Full results