United States Eventing Association

Off the Record Breaks Records in Cosequin Lexington CCI4*-S at Defender Kentucky

Lexington, Ky.—April 25—Off The Record decided not to let Michael Jung be the only record-breaking entry at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event this week and delivered a career-best score in the Cosequin Lexington CCI4*-S on Friday morning. He and Will Coleman delivered a test that received a score of 21.8, not only marking a personal best for the horse but also securing their position at the top of the leaderboard going into cross-country tomorrow.

“We are using this weekend as sort of a litmus test to see where ‘Timmy’ is,” noted Coleman, who has been paired with the Off The Record Syndicate’s 16-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (VDL Arkansas x Drumagoland Bay) for nearly a decade now.

“It's not so unreasonable for horses to compete at 16- or 17-years-old, but we want to be conscious that we're asking the right things of him,” Coleman continued. “I think we’ll get a good sense of where he is after this weekend, and then, if it goes well, we’ll feel good about maybe a five-star, like Luhmühlen or something like that—I wouldn't rule that out. We want to just use tomorrow to kind of provide some information on how Timmy’s feeling out there and how he handles 6 minutes and 37 seconds of basically a five-star track. I think we'll just let Timmy tell us what he wants to do. Honestly, I don't really have any concrete plans for him. I really am just kind of along for the ride.”

Even with all that Timmy has accomplished in his career, Coleman noted that you can tell the horse is happy to be back at the Kentucky Horse Park doing what he loves most.

“Even at 16, he still has a remarkable work ethic and has proven to be a very trainable horse, even at this old dog age,” he said. “He was just awesome today. He was really excited to be here, and you could just feel it. He was excited to get into the arena today, and I just couldn’t be more proud.”

Phillip Dutton led the pack at the conclusion of day 1 with Denim, but the pair was bumped down to third when Dutton moved into the second-place position with Possante, owned by The Possante Group, on a score of 23.1.

While Dutton has had the 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Namelus R x Wendelein) in the barn for a few years now, some minor injuries slowed down their plans in the first year. Thankfully, his recovery was quick and nothing will have a long-term impact, and Dutton is excited to have the horse out and performing well.

“He's a pretty stunning horse to have, and I'm very lucky to have him,” he reflected. “I don’t have too much to do in the dressage with him, because he does it all for me pretty much. It’s just a case of getting him relaxed, I am pleased with the way he settled in today. He surprised me a little bit in the warm up, because he was a bit on edge, but in the last few minutes, he took a deep breath, and he held it all together. So it was good, and there’s tons of potential there for years to come hopefully.”

Like Denim, Dutton opted to use Kentucky’s four-star as an opportunity to ramp up Possante’s competition career this spring rather than jump him up to the five-star level too soon.

“The only real difference [between the four-star and five-star at Kentucky] is the length of course,” Dutton commented. “The four-star is pretty strong. For both of these horses, the endurance is going to take a bit of time, and I just thought that this event being in April was a little early for them. It’s quite a strong five-star, so aiming for something not quite as challenging is probably good for both of them.”

For currently positioned fourth-place rider Chris Talley, sitting up at the top of the leaderboard amongst U.S. eventing superstars like Coleman and Dutton is surreal.

“It's pretty amazing to sit next to these two guys. They're both obviously incredible riders and athletes, so it's an honor,” he shared.

His test with FE Marco Polo, owned by Allison Pratt, earned a score of 26.8. He paired up with the 9-year-old Oldenburg gelding (Arko Junior PMS x Elfe II) two years ago and has brought him through the levels.

“He went from training to four-star in just over a year,” reflected Talley. “He's incredibly special, but he can struggle with his confidence, and he can be quite emotional. I always say he's kind of like me. I wasn't sure how he was going to be in there today. This is his first time at Kentucky, and only my second time, so I felt a little bit of pressure. You know, he's obviously so special, and with time is just going to keep getting better and better. I knew that if I did my job well and rode him well, I was hoping he would reward me with that, and he did that today. I wasn't really expecting to be sitting up here, but it's not a bad feeling.”

Talley describes FE Marco Polo as an incredible cross-country horse and is looking forward to galloping out of the start box with him tomorrow morning.

“He is pretty incredible in all three phases if I do my job,” he said. “Tomorrow will be a test for him— he's never seen crowds and an atmosphere like this. The course, I walked it yesterday once, and I liked it. It's big and bold, and you’ve got to be on it, but he generally is an incredible cross-country horse, so I'm looking forward to it.”

The top 13 in the highly competitive four-star field all sit on a sub-30 score, meaning that time will be everything during tomorrow’s cross-country phase. Many of the riders have described Derek di Grazia’s four-star short track as a “five-star short” in both technicality and design.

Four-star riders will begin making their way out of the start box at 9:30 a.m. EST on Saturday, April 26.

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