United States Eventing Association

Lexington, Ky.—April 24—New Zealand’s Monica Spencer found herself in a familiar position at the end of the second day of dressage at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event today—in first after dressage in the five-star aboard her longtime partner Artist.

Last fall, Spencer and her 15-year-old Thoroughbred gelding (Guillotine x Maxamore) led the dressage at the MARS Maryland 5 Star, ultimately finishing second.

This year, she and “Max” bested their Maryland score of 23.7, earning a 22.3, just .3 ahead of fellow Kiwi rider Tim Price on Vitali (22.6).

“Max was super today. He gave me good energy in the test,” said Spencer, who’s a big fan of Thoroughbreds in the sport. “On cross-country, it's always nice to be on a fast horse, and in the dressage, I'm lucky with Max. He's a beautiful mover, and he's always been very trainable, so I enjoy riding him in the dressage. I have had a few good Thoroughbreds over the years that have been good at dressage. I am particularly lucky with the way Max moves. He's quite an expressive horse. For a Thoroughbred, he likes to throw his front legs around, and he did that today.”

Spencer and Max led after cross-country as well at Maryland, so while there may be some pressure to maintain her position after tomorrow’s cross-country day, she says she’s more concerned with getting the best starting score and taking each day as it comes.

“I would like to be as high up as possible, just in case I need a few extra points on the last day,” she said. “It's a long week. I think we all look at every day as very separate, because with eventing, you can be a rooster one minute and a feather duster the next, so I just try to enjoy the moment and just play to my horse's strengths. I've worked a lot on the dressage over the years, because that's something I can keep on improving—never can be as good as it can be, and he's feeling this year the best he's ever felt.”

She and Max are ready to tackle Derek di Grazia’s track tomorrow. “There's tough combinations the whole way, and there will be problems scattered everywhere, probably, which is the sign of a good course design, and they usually read Derek's courses really well,” she said. “I think all the jumps are very much there to be jumped, but it'll be easy to have a problem anywhere on course, and it's a true five-star.”

Price and Vitali, a 16-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Contender x Noble Lady I) he owns with Alexander and Joseph Giannamore, have been together for about seven years and have plenty of experience at five-stars together, but Vitali’s weakness is his show jumping, which has cost the pair wins in the past on the final day.

But on the flat, the gelding shines—he’s scored a record 18.7 at Burghley (England) in 2023.

“Vitali, this is not his first rodeo. He's a good dressage horse but not usually in the spring—he does his best work normally in the autumn, so I was very happy,” said Price. “He was a little bit on the edge, but we still managed to keep on track with the test, and I was very happy with him.”

While Price admits the pair have had a few disappointments in the final results at five-stars, “equally, he's an incredible horse in so many ways. I'd never give up on him. I think he's got a big one in him at some point. Hopefully that's going to come around sometime soon, because he's getting a bit older. It did probably take a couple of years. I didn't get him as a young horse. He was produced by other riders and probably took a couple of years to really form a good partnership where we understood each other. And it's just a matter of tinkering away to try to find something that's going to help us be truly successful at this level. That's going to happen one day and hopefully sometime soon.”

Price believes tomorrow’s course will be a proper five-star. “I think Derek's been very clever with putting the right kind of question at the right kind of place around the course,” he said. “Walking it just gives me that little feeling of nerves and excitement that I get when it's a proper one. It's a long way around, and there's jobs all the way home. So yeah, tomorrow's big day.”

Great Britain’s Tom McEwen slotted into third place with Brookfield Quality (25.1), a 17-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Obos Quality 004 x Bay Coffey Cavalier) owned by John and Chloe Perry and Alice Swinburn.

“Absolutely delighted,” said McEwen. “‘Norris’ pulled out the same test that he can do every time and laid everything down. I was really pleased. Realistically, I know what Norris can do, and all you can do is lay down your own, and that's what he did. These two laid down tests that they have—it's always going to be pretty tough to get that close to them, but he’s close enough, so I’m delighted with him.”

He and the gelding have been to Kentucky before, finishing fifth in 2025. “Like Monica said, there's going to be combinations that could be made to look really hard, and somebody else would float through and make them look like nothing,” he said. “But I fully agree with [Price]. It walks and feels like a proper, five-star test from start to finish, and it definitely gives you the excitement to go out and have a go around it.”

The top U.S. pair after dressage is Carolina Pamukcu and her 2024 Paris Olympics partner HSH Blake, an 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Tolan R x Doughiska Lass), owned by Mollie Hoff, Sherrie Martin, and Pamukcu and Deniz Pamukcu. They scored a 26.6 to head into cross-country in fourth place.

Cross-country for the five-star begins tomorrow at 1:30 p.m.

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