United States Eventing Association

Lexington, Ky.,April 28, 2011— Allison Springer has won every award given out thus far at this Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by Bridgestone. Scoring 42.3 penalties as the first horse in the ring, Springer, of Marshall, Va., and Arthur immediately grabbed first place on the first of two days of dressage and never let go.

Mary King of Great Britain rode King’s Temptress into second place, scoring 47.7, and Will Coleman, of Charlottesville, Va., rode Twizzel into third place, scoring 48.2. Three-time Rolex Kentucky winner Kim Severson is fourth on Tipperary Liadhnan (48.5).

Just the night before, Springer had claimned two other awards. First, she won a pair of DuBarry boots as the best-dressed female rider at the first horse inspection, and then she won the competitors’ drawing for a Rolex watch. While wearing her new Rolex, Springer said she’s hoping even more to win the watch that goes to the winner on Sunday.

“I think I’ve just got to roll with these good vibes. I fully intend on making it continue to go well,” she said, adding, “It’s a great dressage score, but I don’t think it’s good enough. I think we’re going to see some 30s tomorrow.”

Reflecting more on Arthur’s test, Springer said, “I had a great warm-up, but I felt pretty much throughout my test that it could have gone a little bit better.”

This is Arthur’s fourth start at Rolex Kentucky, but on Friday Springer, 36, will be competing Destination Known for the first itme at Rolex Kentucky. So she said she won’t be worrying about the waterlogged cross-country course until her second dressage test is finished.

“I’m not worried about it yet, because I think that this ground can take the water, and this is a phenomenal crew, so I know they’re going to make it a perfect competition,” she said.

Springer said that she likes the challenges created by Derek di Grazia, who’s designing the Rolex Kentucky course for the first time. “It’s really, really thoughtful, and I like the path of the course. I like the feel of it. But I’ve got to ride every single fence, because it is a four-star course,” she said.

Di Grazia, of Monterey, Calif., is very familiar with the Kentucky Horse Park. He won the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event in 1985, he’s designed courses for other events here for many years, and he assisted predecessor Mike Etherington-Smith for the last two years at Rolex Kentucky and at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

“We did a lot of work on the footing and changed the start/finish for the WEG, and I wanted to make use of the work that we’d done, so my challenge was to come up with something that was a bit different” than the WEG, said di Grazia.

Despite the heavier-than-normal precipitation, di Grazia said he shares Springer’s confidence that the ground will dry out well by the start of cross-country at 10 o’clock on Saturday morning. But, he noted dryly, the Sunken Road (fence 11) “will have a new added attraction this year, which is water. It’s almost overflowing now, and it’s definitely going still to be there on Saturday, at least some of it. I think it will be the first time ever there’s been water in the Sunken Road. “

This year, the Ariat Kentucky Reining Cup is making its debut alongside the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event and it will feature the world’s best reiners including the four members of the Gold Medal team from last year’s Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, all of whom are entered to compete.

On Thursday afternoon, the reining ground jury accepted 20 horses to start on Friday night. The Ariat Kentucky Reining cup will conclude with the freestyle on Saturday night.

Lisa Coulter and Tom McCutcheon won the DuBary Style Award as the best-dressed female and male riders at the reining horse inspection.

The Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event is part of the HSBC FEI ClassicsTM and features the world’s best horses and riders vying for their share of $250,000 in prize money as well as a shot at the $350,000 Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing which is awarded to any rider who wins the Rolex Kentucky, Mitsubishi Motors Badminton and Land Rover Burghley Four Star Events in succession.

Further information on the 2011 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, Presented by Bridgestone, is available at the Rolex Kentucky website (www.rk3de.org). For the Ariat Kentucky Reining Cup visit www.KentuckyReining.com.

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