Still figuring out how I really feel about the 5* this year. I never really thought this was going to be Mai Baum’s course- Paris was made for him, sadly. Boyd’s fall with Commando was probably the surprise of the day for me. I had him pegged as one who would cruise around and I wonder how much lighting reflecting on the water factored into that fall. Shout out to Emily Hamel because she would have been very close to the time without that late runout.
We really missed Liz & Miks Master C here. I think that horse is a case study in what you need for a course like Maryland. Big and powerful, but with real stamina and a default mode that’s attacking/forward.
The saw mill water (corners at the top of the hill) was almost unjumpable in my opinion. Only Barnaby and Galileo jumped the full direct route and neither of them made it look comfortable. With that coming at around the 8 minute mark where we know horses tend to be hitting a wall, and the long pull up the hill putting them on their inside shoulder, I just think any horse that isn’t insanely attacking in their natural way of going is primed to run out through the right shoulder there.
The stamina test combined with the intensity of the combinations just seemed a little unfair in places. Really surprised to read Buck’s comments about the course not being a true 5*…
