Phillip Dutton (USA) and Z made easy work of the cross-country phase to overtake the lead heading into show jumping tomorrow at The Fork, presented by Lucky Clays Farm at Tryon International Equestrian Center (TIEC) in the FEI CIC 3* division, serving as the FEI World Equestrian Games™ Eventing Test Event, and the pair sit on a score of 28. Jordán Linstedt (USA) and Revitavet Capato added 3.20 penalties onto their score to improve their rank to second place on a 29.9. Dutton also guided mounts I'm Sew Ready and Fernhill Cubalawn around the Captain Mark Phillips (GBR) designed course to secure third and fourth place rankings with scores of 30 and 31.5, respectively. Dutton and the 2008 Zangersheide gelding (Asca x Bellabouche) owned by T. Tierney, S. Roosevelt, S. Lacy, A. Jones, and C. Moran, crossed through the timers in 6 minutes and 17 seconds, just a mere second over the optimum time. "The goal was to step things up a bit from what I've been doing as far as speed goes," said Dutton. "I thought the course in general rode well. It's golf course terrain, so you're working all of the time with your lines and the different elements of up and down." Today's FEI CIC 3* competitors commented on the potential hints on course as to what September is expected to bring on the track. "I think that it showed today with even a straightforward course that the time is hard to make, and that's going to only be the first seven minutes," noted Dutton, who is currently ranked fourth on the FEI World Eventing Athlete Rankings. "The horse needs to be fit and rideable. You want to ride through this terrain and not have to always be shortening up, so you want a nice, balanced, rideable horse. It's going to be a good test." Dutton described his first place mount as competitive with uncommon athleticism, and one that he has fun piloting around the cross-country phase. "I've always known he was a freak!" exclaimed Dutton. "He just loves to jump. He's only getting better and better. It's kind of fun to be a part of his (hopefully) long career." "He's point and shoot, and he's just as good as my other horses. We've had one fall in which he over jumped in the water a few years ago, so we've learned from that. He's not a horse that I want to ride aggressively all of the time, since he trusts me and if I say 'really go,' he really goes. I just have to make sure I don't override him."
