2023 Maryland 5* at Fair Hill

[FitzE]

The final jumping rounds were bad for my nerves! Very exciting ending with so many in reach on Sunday.

I watched via USEF and a vpn since I’m in Asia. It was fine. Glitchy and weird at times but I felt I had so many variables it could have been me.

I loved that Austin went from 4th to 1st. I loved that Mia was top 5 for her 5* debut.

The facility looked world class and the coverage was quite good, I thought. In the breaks, I would have loved to see more wandering coverage of the vendors, maybe the pony and Corgie races, too. It looked like a fabulous weekend.

[chancellor2]

You say that you watch quite a bit on Clipmyhorsetv Benchmark. I wonder if you had little to no trouble because you purchased a subscription?
Honestly, I considered purchasing a subscription so I could watch easily.
I did for Burghley tv. But then I saw the price! What a ridiculous amount of money! $359? Really?
Burghley TV was $25! And the coverage was EXCELLENT!
What the hell is with the shots of just the horse’s legs on Dressage?

I will agree with whomever said that Sinead and Spencer were excellent commentators. They really did a brilliant job (Sinead is SOOOOOO much better than Karen OC.) Spencer had me laughing out loud several times. I loved the betting on scores in dressage! It was great.
Their commentary was certainly a highlight!

[AmmyHour926]

While it is notable and exciting that Phelps is a TB we shouldn’t romanticize it. At the end of the day he is the 1% of the 1% of American thoroughbred that’s make it into UL careers let alone 5 stars. A large part of the problem of American breeding system is that fundamentally the majority of the OTTbs that are pendled as the next best sport horse are fundamentally unsound. If we want American breeding to get better we need to stop promising the racing industry that eventers and sport horse people will happily buy up their wastage. This is what happened in the UK and In Europe and look at their breeding programs compared to ours (full tb and not).

Unrelated to Maryland. Didn’t attend in person and life has kept me from the live stream, but excited to rewatch this week.

[FLeventer]

I also had no issue with the livestream. I was running it through a VPN to see the US coverage and no issues. I have the subscription and when did it become $300? It is like $160 a year, which is reasonable since I watch the events at work on replay. I bought it for Kentucky and then kept it to watch Aachen and realized how much content was on it.

Do I wish that they all fell under an umbrella and it was one streaming service for all events, but eh. I’m just happy to have coverage and to be able to watch the streams.

I will say that I loved the commentary. It was fun to listen to and informative. I wish there was more entries, but so be it. Ian did an amazing XC course and it was so beautifully decorated and built. I can’t wait for next year.

[Tha_Ridge]

@chancellor2

I did for Burghley tv. But then I saw the price! What a ridiculous amount of money! $359? Really?

I pay $16/month for CMH. It is well worth it.

[chancellor2]

I’m glad you find it worth it. But for a new subscriber, it would be nearly twice that. And I don’t think that is worth it in my mind. To each their own.

Correcting myself–I looked at the price for CMH PRO which is $359! The Premium price is far less. My apologies.

[punchy]

@AmmyHour926

While it is notable and exciting that Phelps is a TB we shouldn’t romanticize it. At the end of the day he is the 1% of the 1% of American thoroughbred that’s make it into UL careers let alone 5 stars. A large part of the problem of American breeding system is that fundamentally the majority of the OTTbs that are pendled as the next best sport horse are fundamentally unsound. If we want American breeding to get better we need to stop promising the racing industry that eventers and sport horse people will happily buy up their wastage. This is what happened in the UK and In Europe and look at their breeding programs compared to ours (full tb and not).

In my opinion, the biggest problem that I see with ottbs in my area is that low level pros drill them over jumps in small indoors with bad footing and rush them. That’s not a fundamental ex-racehorse soundness problem, that’s crappy horsemanship.

But I agree that racing people need to stop on horses when they’re still sound if they expect a sport horse buyer to want it.

[Tha_Ridge]

No, it would not be:

Whether you think it’s worth it or not is up to you, but at least don’t say things that aren’t true.

[chancellor2]

That’s my bad! I saw the price for Pro. Not just the Premium. Thanks for the correction!

[pompeiii]

I thought the event was great this year. It was a shame about the entries, but the cross country course was legit this year. And between the 3*, YEH (52 5 year olds jumped and 30-some 4 year olds), a lot went on this week. I’m hoping the 5* will have more entries soon (Pan Ams likely didn’t help nor did unfortunately timed injuries).

But, you can’t have more 5* entries if you don’t have the horses ready for that level.

[Highflyer1]

Less than 1 percent of any breed/registry makes it to the top of any sport. That’s how it goes. Very, very few horses have the talent, courage and soundness to make it as 5* horses and many of those who potentially do get hurt doing something stupid in the field as babies, or end up with the wrong person who can’t afford to get to that level or can’t manage them properly or who just have different goals.

There were two horses by Malibu Moon in the 3*. I’m sure he could have been a more successful sporthorse sire if he hadn’t been such a good racehorse sire.

[awaywego]

I went Saturday and Sunday - thanks to everyone here for getting me there on the right weekend Both days I timed our arrival pretty terribly and got there just when the 3* was finishing and there seemed to be an interminable break before the 5* started. It feels like they have really improved the event year over year. I did meet a woman who said that this year was the 3rd year of a 3 year contract so I hope that doesn’t mean that this could all go poof next year. My non-horsey husband really loves going on xc day - he says he’d like to do that But really, from his non-horse perspective, it is a very cool day: he likes seeing the horses “running fast,” walking out the xc course and no shortage of drinks! Huge improvement in food trucks since the first year when they didn’t have enough and the lines were just impossible.

Yesterday was a bit of a bummer. No one’s fault that they didn’t have many to jump, and sure the corgi race was cute but that was 5 minutes? If they don’t have enough entries, I think there should be more filler events for some of that downtime.

ETA: thank you to the poster who said I can use my WHYY Passport membership to watch everything I missed. Very cool!

[FitzE]

@Highflyer1

r end up with the wrong person

It was so sad/sweet when Austin confessed he almost gave Colorado Blue to someone else b/c he thought the horse deserved to win a 5* and he thought he, Austin, couldn’t get him there.

[Ghazzu]

I think that one ought not to forget that taking out the steeplechase and roads and tracks component of 3 day eventing favored the WBs over the TBs as well.

[pompeiii]

@awaywego

Yesterday was a bit of a bummer. No one’s fault that they didn’t have many to jump, and sure the corgi race was cute but that was 5 minutes? If they don’t have enough entries, I think there should be more filler events for some of that downtime.

They had all the corgi race heats before the 3*. There were a lot of them and it actually took awhile. I think there were 11 or 12 of them?

[Bogie]

My subscription is $158 per year as I recall and the content is excellent. I occasionally have problems but most of the time it’s fine.

[Texarkana]

Amen!

I have already said this, but I get weirdly defensive about the 5 star. Fair Hill was my backyard growing up and I just want to see the 5 star thrive. I had my skepticisms at first, but when I was able to attend my first meeting about it with the Maryland Stadium Authority, I was 100% all in.

They want this to be a world class event and are seriously going above and beyond to make it one.

This was my first year volunteering since it became the 5 star and that just made me even more excited about the whole thing. I was there Thursday-Sunday and had hands down one of the best weekends at a horse event ever!

[FitzE]

I hope it thrives, too. There used to be big events at Radnor and Chesterland sort of in that area, right?

[Texarkana]

Yup. It’s only about 25-30 min over to Unionville, the “heart” of southern Chester county eventing country. Slightly farther to Radnor and what used to be horse country but is now more high dollar McMansion urban sprawl. The Fair Hill property borders the PA/MD state line. It’s a great asset.

[FitzE]

And those other two no longer run is that right? Chesterland stopped a long time ago but what happened to Radnor Hunt 3-Day?