Laura Graves & Verdades Post Personal Best Grand Prix Score to Lead USA to Top of Nations Cup at Mid Stage

Laura Graves and Verdades posting a personal best Grand Prix score in the Wellington CDIO3* Nations Cup. © iKen Braddick/dressage-news.com

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

WELLINGTON, Florida, Mar. 30, 2016–Laura Graves and Verdades posted a personal best Grand Prix score Wednesday to lead the United States to the top of the Nations standings halfway through the CDIO3* event at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival.

The score of 76.860 per cent for the World and Pan American Games combination that beat their previous best of 76.680 was the top award for the six teams from around the world in the first of a series of seven Nations Cups, the other six in Europe.

The United States team of Laura and Verdades, Kasey Perry Glass and Dublet and Shelly Francis and Doktor had a commanding lead with 221.6 points over Canada on 208.1 in second–both all Big Tour teams.

Spain's all-Small Tour squad slotted into third on 203.763 with Juan Matute, Jr. on Dhannie Ymas leading the team with a score of 71.868 per cent in the Prix St. Georges. Denmark was fourth, Costa Rica fifth and Australia sixth.

Each one of the Big Tour horses get a bonus of 1.5 per cent to their scores.

The Grand Prix Special and the Intermediate 1 will be staged Thursday to decide the Nations Cup that is unique in the series as it is a mix of Big and Small Tour teams while all other events in the series are at Grand Prix level.

For Laura the personal best score despite a costly mistake in the walk was “disappointing” because she was riding for the team but if she had been riding only for herself she would have laughed it off.

She joked that an in earlier competition at Global this season where Verdades was tense and she had scored lower than expected it had been like riding “four different horses, like a circus rider with a leg on four different horses.”

But in the Grand Prix, she proved to herself her training was on the right track and sticking together with the growing number of riders at the top of U.S. dressage whose performances and camaraderie she lauded.

The Nations Cup and a companion CDI3* that gets underway Thursday closes out the Global circuit of 12 weeks. Three CDIs in California, one in Tryon, North Carolina and another in the Houston, Texas area remain before a squad of about eight combinations is selected to go to Europe.

There, they will compete against each other for the four slots plus a reserve for the the American team for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August.

Verdades, a 14-year-old KWPN gelding that Laura has developed from a foal to 15th in the world rankings, is atop the U.S. Olympic standings with Steffen Peters on Rosamunde second and on Legolas in third with Kasey and Dublet cementing their fourth ranking with the 73.000 per cent they received Wednesday.

Denmark's Mikala Gundersen on My Lady with 72.240 per cent broke up an American sweep of the top three individual places in the Grand Prix.

Shelly Francis on Doktor placed fourth individually on 71.740 per cent in the Nations Cup that should the pair a ticket to Europe,.

Allison Brock on Rosevelt whose recent performances have moved them up to fifth in the U.S. standings are scheduled to start in the CDI3* Thursday.

Results:

CDIO 3* Grand Prix

E: Jena – SWE H: Lang – AUT C: Clarke – GBR M: Fore – USA B: Hess – GER

		Rider	Nat.	Horse				E	–	H	–	C	–	M	–	B	–	Total
		Graves, Laura	USA	Verdades				76.200		76.000		77.600		79.200		75.300		76.860
		Perry-Glass, Kasey	USA	Goerklintgaards Dublet				73.200		72.000		72.900		73.400	]	73.500		73.000
		Gundersen, Mikala	DEN	My Lady				70.300		72.400		72.200		76.700		69.600		72.240
		Francis, Shelly	USA	Doktor				70.400		71.300		72.600		72.200		72.200		71.740
		Trussell, Belinda	CAN	Anton				72.100		68.300		70.900		70.800		72.500		70.920
		Page, Arlene	USA	Woodstock				69.300		69.100		70.108		72.800		67.500		69.762
		Pavicic, Karen	CAN	Don Daiquiri				67.100		68.500		68.500		71.300		68.700		68.820
		Lane, Megan	CAN	Caravella				67.200		67.800		68.900		69.200		68.700		68.360
		Brooks, Jacqueline M.	CAN	D Niro				69.000		66.000		67.100		68.800		67.700		67.720
		Manfredi, Maria Florencia	ARG	Bandurria Kacero				66.300		66.200		67.900		66.200		65.800		66.480
		Layne, Kelly	AUS	Von Primaire				66.400		67.000		65.900		66.600		66.200		66.420
		Schwarz, Ilse	AUS	Cadenza				64.100		57.500		59.100		59.600		57.900		59.640
		Montero, Manuel	CHI	Everybody Dance Now				57.700		59.500		58.300		58.900		60.400		58.960
		Gentry, Kim	AUS	Leonardo				57.500		53.900		51.800		59.800		53.400		55.280

CDIO 3* Prix St Georges

E: Hess – GER H: Jena – SWE C: Lang – AUT M: Clarke – GBR B: Fore – USA

		Rider	Ctzn	Horse				E	–	H	–	C	–	M	–	B	–	Total
		Matute Jr, Juan	ESP	Dhannie Ymas				72.237		72.237		70.921		74.474		69.474		71.868
		Corchuelo, Raul	COL	Beckham				69.474		68.289		68.684		72.368		68.158		69.395
		Stumpf, Katharina	AUT	For My Love				66.184		66.711		67.237		69.474		67.895		67.500
		Jimenez Cobo, Juan Antonio	ESP	Elevado				63.553		67.237		66.842		68.026		69.342		67.000
		Egerstrom, Christer	CRC	Bello Oriente				66.684		65.763		65.105		69.184		65.895		66.526
		Poulsen, Rikke	DEN	Pikk Elena HU				65.000		66.711		65.132		65.921		68.158		66.184
		Ramirez, Alfonso	ESP	Legacys Cosmico				65.000		64.868		65.000		63.684		65.921		64.895
		Egerstrom, Anne Marie	CRC	Amorino				64.474		66.316		62.237		65.263		65.658		64.789
		Batalla, Michelle	CRC	Westergardens Vivi Light				62.105		65.142		62.237		63.816		64.868		63.634
		Kirk Kristiansen, Signe	DEN	Roberto				60.658		64.737		66.316		62.500		60.921		63.026
		Gomez Molina, Pablo	ESP	Lanzado De Ymas				61.053		64.474		63.289		62.237		62.368		62.684