Smith and Lillet 3 Earn Sub-30 Dressage Score to Sit Within Top 10 of FEI Eventing World Championship
U.S. eventing fans were thrilled upon the conclusion of the second day of dressage as U.S. Individual Rider Tamie Smith and Molly Duda's 10-year-old Holsteiner mare Lillet 3 (Livello x Princess L) rode their way to a sub-30 score to sit in 8th placing going into cross-country tomorrow in the FEI Eventing World Championship.
Smith has been in England since the end of May and came over to Germany a few weeks ago to begin her final preparations. She was thrilled with Lillet's test today, which earned a score of 27.0, and complimented everyone who has helped her get to this place.
"You don't know what they're going to do in an atmosphere like that, and she was just like a seasoned pro in there," Smith said following her ride. "She's so young and wouldn't have ever seen anything like that in there, so I was really proud of her."
The highlight of the day for Smith was how together they felt as a partnership.
"Every stride it's like she was saying, 'Like this?' and I was like, 'Yes, like that! Keep going!' She is such a special horse and such a special mare, and she just tries so hard, but she tried in a really relaxed manner. Sometimes when they try too hard, they get a little nervous, but she was just so with me, and it felt amazing."
William Coleman and the Diabolo Group's 14-year-old Holsteiner gelding Diabolo (Diarado x Roulett M) also trotted down the centerline today, earning a score of 30.0 to slot them in 21st position.
"There were some good things," reflected the rider, "but maybe just had a hard time putting the whole test together today. I kind of anticipated him going in there and responding a bit to the crowd and atmosphere in there, but he was almost a little lazy for bits of his test. And then the only place when he was a little crowd sensitive was during the walk, so it was a bit of a hairy walk tour. I was on eggshells for most of that, but we did the best we could. It's his first championship. He's a great horse, and hopefully, we are going to have two more good days and that's all we are going to focus on now."
While there were parts of his test he would have liked to have improved upon, Coleman expects some shakeups on the leaderboard after tomorrow.
"I don't think it will be a dressage competition. It's a very different track from Kentucky. I think he's a very capable horse, he's shown he can do very well in these kinds of short, quick tracks, and hopefully we can."
Also concluding their first phase for the U.S. today was Boyd Martin aboard Cooley Nutcracker, a 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (BMC Tolan R. x Ballyshan Cleopatra) owned by Liz’s Nutcrackers. Martin and "Bali" are in 25th place with a score of 30.9.
"I was pretty pleased with it. You always dream of this perfect test, but I feel like I got a lot of good work out of it. There's one or two moments I wish I could redo, but all in all I'm very, very pleased with him. He's a quirky horse. He's very quiet and laid-back in the stable, but when you're riding him if people move, he is so sharp and quick. The best thing about the horse, though, is that when you go into the competition ring, he's really focused. I never get too worried about his shenanigans in the warm-up. I've got immense belief in him that when it's time to perform, he puts his head down and pins his ears back and does a good job."
Martin took over the ride on Bali after former rider Liz Halliday's accident in 2024. He noted it's taken him some time to get the horse to the level that Halliday had him going at.
"I underestimated how brilliant of a job Liz did on him. I was in the Paris Olympics with Bruno and Liz was with this guy and she just made it look so easy. It's been a humbling experience, because I have been working and working and nearly got him back to where she had him, so it's still a work in progress."
As Coleman noted, cross-country day at Aachen on Saturday could be a gamechanger for all the competitors because of the various challenges that course designer Guiseppe della Chiesa (ITA) has set for them.
"It's very challenging," shared Martin. "It's not a real big track like at the classic five-stars at Kentucky, Badminton, or Burghley with big jumps, but I think this is equally as hard, if not harder, just because of the precision that's needed with the angles. I rode here for the first time last year and I was shocked how tired [the horses] get even though it's a flat course because of the winding and the back-and-forth. It's energy zapping. So I am going to have to pace my animal and make sure he's got enough juice at the end."
With Lillet being the youngest of the U.S. horses, Smith's goal is to stay focused every step of the ride.
"It looks very twisty like Pratoni. Same course designer, but it's a couple steps up from Pratoni. The questions that are there really are five-star and a half. There are a couple that I have no idea what she is going to do. She's green, but she's a horse that wants to go through the flags, and I just have to stay focused. She's fast, she's nimble, she turns, she does all the things, so she is the perfect horse to go around this course. It will be a big test I think and hopefully an easy one." Tamie
The U.S. remain in sixth place as a team going into the second phase tomorrow with a team score of 93.2.
Great Britain hold the team lead on a score of 72.8, but Germany is right behind them with a 73.6, thanks in great part to overnight leader Julia Krajewski's score of 22.0 aboard the 12-year-old Holsteiner gelding Uelzener's Nickel (Numero Uno x Orchidee V), owned by Bernd Heicke. Laura Collet (GBR) is in overall second with London 52, a 17-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Landos x Vernante), whom she co-owns with Karen Bartlett and Keith Scott, thanks to a score of 22.8. The legendary partnership of fischerChipmunk FRH, an 18-year-old Hanoverian gelding (Contendro I x Havanna), owned by Klaus and Sabine Fischer, Joachim Jung, and the DOKR, and Michael Jung (Germany) are in third with a 23.
Cross-country gets underway on Saturday, August 15 at 9:35 a.m. local time which is 3:35 a.m. EST.
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