United States Eventing Association

Halliday and Miks Master C Lead a Star-Studded Top Three in the Cosequin CCI4*-S at Kentucky

Lexington, Ky.—April 27— “He knows Kentucky,” Liz Halliday said with a chuckle when referencing how strong Miks Master C can look on cross-country. “He knows this place. He knows how to run fast here. He was waiting for that 11 and a half minutes.”

Following the second phase, Halliday and the 12-year-old Swedish Warmblood gelding (Mighty Magic x Qui Luma CBF) owned by Debora Palmer and Ocala Horse Properties held onto their overnight lead in the Cosequin CCI4*-S at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event. They added just 3.2 time penalties to their score to sit in first on a 29.2.

Halliday and “Mikki’ haven't quite met the two-year mark in their partnership, and every competition she feels she is learning something new about him. The pair have been really focused on finding the balance between the horse’s strong nature and setting the right pace while on course. After his win in the CCI4*-S at the Carolina International (Raeford, North Carolina), Halliday opted to save Mikki specifically for the four-star at Kentucky.

“I decided not to run him after Carolina because he was superb there,” she shared. “He's always a strong horse, but in hindsight, I feel like maybe he could have had one more run in between, which is just us learning him. He was very brave; he was very quick on his feet. He still answered all the combinations the right way. I just think perhaps we need to have one more run in between to put the brakes in place a little more, but that's an educational experience for us all.”

Halliday had four rides today, three in the four-star and one in the CCI5*-L. All four were clear across the country, and she was feeling quite sentimental about the success of her string following the final round.

“Mikki gave me a run for my money; he was quite keen today, but he jumped spectacularly," she said. "To finish up like this with four clear rounds and my slowest one being 6.4 time penalties, so that is a pretty good day at the office. We don’t always have a good day at the office, so I will take it. I am just happy all my horses are fit and well."

Halliday was joined by two other U.S. athletes in the top three today, Will Coleman and Boyd Martin. All three have their hearts set on being selected for the team to represent the U.S. at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games this summer.

Coleman and the Diabolo Group, LLC’s Diabolo (Diarado x Roulett M) moved up from sixth to second thanks to their double-clear trip across Derek di Grazia’s four-star course. The pair was the only one to make the time. Their partnership is a newer one, and Coleman was eager to use today as an opportunity to learn more about the 12-year-old Holsteiner gelding.

“He’s a good cross-country horse; I knew that going in, but I never really pressed the pedal, and I would say today it didn’t even go full-tilt. You know, I found myself looking after him in a couple of places, maybe being a bit more cautious setting him up. I just wanted to give him a good experience, and I think I did. And he felt like he enjoyed it. I think he's a real winner. I mean, the only knock I have against him is his age. I wish I had found him earlier. But he's a lovely horse. And he's going to be very quick on cross-country, and I think he's gonna end up being a real star for me. I am very excited about him.”

Many pairs struggled today in the Le Chameau Park Question coffin complex at 6, but Coleman and Diabolo breezed through it like a seasoned team. Coleman noted that the ending portion of that question was “pretty close to a five-star,” which probably led to some of the trouble seen today.

“There is a lot going on there,” he shared. “It’s early in the course, and to me, it looks like for most people that had trouble they didn’t really get their horse back into what you would say is a proper coffin canter. If you jump in either too fast or too out of balance, then the horse falls away from you a bit harder, and then it can be harder to recover over the ditch to make the two stride and then the one stride. It was a clever question because it didn’t walk intimidating at all, but in a strange way, it caught a lot of people out.”

Coleman is also going into show jumping in fourth with his second entry, Off the Record (VDL Arkansas x Drumogoland Bay), the 15-year-old Holsteiner gelding owned by the Off the Record Syndicate.

After the first day of dressage, Martin and the 11-year-old Holsteiner gelding Commando 3 (Connor 48 x R-Adulgunde) were riding high in first place, but they were eventually knocked down to fourth after the second day. As many people noted, however, the four-star division at Kentucky is anything but a dressage competition, and they inched back up into the top three thanks to their quick and clean cross-country round.

They were one of the fastest pairs in the field, adding only 1.2 time penalties to their dressage score to go into Sunday on a score of 30.1. Martin is also tied for fourth with the Annie Godwin Syndicate’s 14-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Fedarman B (Eurocommerce Washington x Paulien B), who he was a tick faster on with just 0.8 time penalties.

“They were both fantastic,’” he stated. “I misjudged the time on both of them. I thought I was good on the clock, and that last minute actually took a bit longer than I anticipated with all of the twists and turns, so I am kicking myself a bit. But all in all, they were both fantastic. They both felt fresh, and they did it pretty easy. It was fun to ride them around.”

Martin noted that tomorrow could be tough.

“I think we are all on very good show jumpers—the top four or five horses are very good show jumpers and show jumping riders. So I think the goal would be to give the horses a good night’s sleep and school them on the flat a little bit in the morning and give it our best tomorrow."

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