by Katherine O. Rizzo with photos by Chelsea Spear

Maryland 5 Star winner Boyd Martin with press secretary Marty Bauman

Boyd Martin (PA) made U.S. eventing history on Sunday, October 17 at the Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill when he became the first U.S. rider since 2008 to win a CCI5*. Martin was sitting in third place going into the final phase of competition and did not let the atmosphere affect him or On Cue. The pair put in a fault free round to finish on their dressage score of 25.0.

The show jump course, designed by Maryland’s own Ken Krome (Westminster), proved to be a challenging one with only seven double clear rounds out of the remaining 33 competitors in the five-star. Tim Price (NZ), who was in second place going into show jumping, and the overnight leader Oliver Townend (GB), each dropped one rail moving them down in the standings.

Townend and Cooley Master Class finished the five-star in second place while Price and Xavier Faer finished third.

Valerie Pride & Favian

Valerie Pride of Harwood completed her first CCI5* in 23rd place. She and Favian had three rails down and a bit of time faults in show jumping but Pride was all smiles as she cross the finish line.

Lillian Heard (PA) and LCC Barnaby finished the five-star with two rails down for 18th place overall.

In the CCI3*, Kurt Martin (VA) lead from start to finish aboard D.A. Lifetime. The pair jumped clean and inside the time around Krome’s three-star course to finish on their dressage score of 23.5.

Second place went to Hannah Sue Burnett (VA) and Carsonstown. Burnett jumped clean with just 0.4 time faults to move up into second from fourth place. Townend put in a double clean round aboard Elkton-resident Juli Hutchings-Sebring’s Ulises to move up into the third place spot.

CCI3* winners Kurt Martin & D.A. Lifetime

Daniel Classing headed into the show jumping phase in second place but unfortunately dropped down to 14th with the Maryland-bred Olney Uncle Sam when they added 12 jump faults to their score.

Overall, there were 35 competitors who show jumped over the three-star course with 12 double clear rounds.

The Maryland 5 Star organizers reported that the four-day total in spectators for the inaugural event was 20,886 with nearly 50% of those numbers coming from those who attended on Saturday for cross-country.