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Rolex Competitors Preview (Part 2/2) and EN's Rolex Pick

Check out Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6Part 7 of EN's Rolex competitor previews. 

Let's jump right in:

Jose Ortelli and JOS Aladar (ARG):
Facebook 
I met Jose and his family for the first time at The Fork because our camper hookups were next to each other, and he struck me as a very nice, very laid back guy.  Our fun fact about Jose is that his father was also a very accomplished rider.  JOS Aladar has considerable experience and took Jose to the Pan Ams in 2007, and placed 26 at Rolex last year.  I expect Jose to be in the back half of the field after dressage, but it's all up from there because JOS Aladar looked like a XC machine at The Fork.



Kate Hicks and Belmont: Facebook
One of our wonderful readers (who asked to remain anonymous) had mercy on me for having so many horses to preview and wrote this very nice bio about Kate and Belmont:

"Kate Hicks (nee Ditchey) hails originally from Vermont where she and her sister were avid pony clubbers. At 10, her family moved to Northern California where she continued to event. After high school, Kate moved south to take a working student position with Bea and Derrick DeGrazia (sp?) with whom she remains very close. The DeGrazia's encouraged Kate to move east to ride with Phillip Dutton. She took their advice and earned a bachelor's degree in Animal Science at the University of Delaware while training with Phillip (and working as a working student for him in the summers). After earning her degree, Kate took a job in the Neo-natal intensive care unit at New Bolton Center but shortly realized that riding horses was her true passion. She became a full-time employee at True Prospect Farm. Roughly two years ago, Kate and her finance (now husband) purchased Cedar Springs Farm in Cochranville, PA. Kate now runs her own boarding and training business but continues to train with Phillip Dutton and Silva Martin. 

Kate purchased Belmont while a working student at True Prospect. Belmont had been sent to Phillip to be sold and Kate fell in love with him. Her own horse had just suffered an injury requiring extended rest so she purchased Belmont as a project horse (he had never gone above training when he arrived at Phillip's). Over time, Kate and Belmont developed a deep bond as she took him up the levels. Kate made the very difficult decision to put Belmont on the market two years ago due to the financial pressures of the sport in general, buying a farm and getting married. Boyd Martin took over the ride on Belmont for about a year campaigning him. Kate kept him at home during that time, keeping Belmont fit and doing all of his training. Boyd liked Belmont so much that he tried to form a syndicate to buy Belmont so that he could keep the ride. Due to the implosion of the market, Belmont did not sell. Kate, with lots of encouragement from her family and friends, enthusiastically took back the ride on Belmont. 

Since that time, Kate and Belmont completed Fair Hill CCI3* with a clean cross country run, won the February Pine Top Intermediate division on a dressage score of 28, were 2nd in the Advanced division at Southern Pines and ran a combined test at the Fork. Belmont has completed four CIC & CCI 3* since 2008 and won the 2009 CIC*** at Jersey Fresh. Kate is an incredibly hard worker and dedicated to the welfare of her horses. She and Belmont are an excellent team who completely adore each other."

So, obviously our fun fact about Kate is somewhere above.  Belmont is excellent on Saturdays, with zero stops in his last 14 events (7 with Boyd, 7 with Kate), so look for a quality weekend from this first-time 4* team.


Oliver Townend and ODT Master Rose (GBR): Homepage, About, Twitter, Fanpage, Horse Record

I think we all know who Oliver Townend is, but if I had to sum his eventing career up in a sentence, I would say that he is an extremely talented rider with a chance to be considered one of the best riders ever, but his reputation is marred right now by questionable horsemanship decisions and unsettling stories.  Our fun fact is that Master Rose was sired by Master Imp, and that Oliver follows Eventing Nation on Twitter.  After two 4* wins (nearly 3), Oliver has a chance at the $350,000 Rolex Grand Slam, and you can expect him to be doing everything within his considerable faculties to win at Rolex.  Master Rose will be competing in his first 4*, and has not placed higher than 3rd in 10 previous 3* events.  But, I wouldn't want to bet against any horse that Oliver is riding. 

Karl Slezak and Charley Farley (CAN): Fanpage, Twitter, Facebook
Our fun fact about Karl is that he apparently likes Vanilla Ice.  The musician performing artist, not the food.  Rocking the Yellow and Green, Karl is an easy person to root for, and a good rider as long as he can correctly recite the 5 rein aids (inside joke).  Charley Farley (17.1 Grey ISH G) has some question marks coming into Rolex, as Karl's Fanpage explained that he scratched from The Fork due to a sore hoof, but Charley Farley is a talented horse and the pair will be competing for a WEG spot.


 Stanislas de Zuchowicz and Quirinal De La Bastide (FRA): Facebook, French Bio
Honestly, when I started my research, I coulnd't have told you if 'Stanislas' was a male or female name.  And then I realized that Stanislas (fun fact: male) was eliminated on Saturday at Rolex last year after sitting in 17th (50.3) following the dressage.  Stanislas represented France later in 2009 at the European Championships, where he and Quirinal placed 18th.  Quirinal is a very athletic and handsome bay horse, and should place well if he can get around the XC.  Stanislas will be wearing light brown in both the dressage and show jumping due to his service in the French armed forces.  Ok, I just got through an entire sentence about the French army without making a single joke, give me some credit.



Leslie Law and Fleeceworks Mystere Du Val (GBR): Homepage

Our fun fact about Leslie is that he usually pumps his hands at his horses when approaching XC combinations.  Watch: when you see him do it at Rolex, you will think of this preview.  Olympic champion Leslie Law brings a very nice horse in Mystere (17hh Chestnut Selle Francais G) to Rolex this year.  Mystere Du Val is one of the top 5 combined test horses in the field, and is a proven winner; Leslie and Mystere have won 10 of the last 16 competitions that they completed.  However, the last two XC rides have raised questions for Mystere with a fall at the Poplar Irish bank, two stops at Chattahoochee.


Bonnie Mosser and Merloch: Homepage, Blog, Bio, Facebook
Bonnie is one of our favorites here at Eventing Nation, and so is Merloch.  As a fun fact about Merloch (16.1 Grey TBX G), he won the Young Riders 2* in 2006 with his previous rider.  Our fun fact about Bonnie is that she used to be a professional downhill skier, which is probably where she gets her great balance.  Merloch has a nearly perfect XC record, with only one stop in 19 events with Bonnie.  That one stop came at Rolex '09, but with a CCI3* (Jersey '07) together, Bonnie and Merloch are a pair that could place well within the top 10 if they put together a good weekend.

The return of the brackets! (kinda): Between our competitors preview part 1 from yesterday and this post, we have previewed 12 riders so far.  The plan is to have an Eventing Nation Rolex pick, chosen by all of our readers, at the end of all the previews.  After every 10 previews or so, we will publish a poll to pick the top riders from that group of 10, and then we will have the winning competitors from several groups face each other, and repeat (probably 3 rounds of voting) until we have an EN pick.  In the first round, everyone gets 3 votes, and the three top combinations from each group will advance to the next round.

So, without further ado, please vote for the three combinations that you think will place highest at Rolex this year.   



----

Ecogold has released their Rolex preview for Ecogold sponsored riders.  Obviously, I don't gain anything by saying this, but top riders looking for sponsorship should give Ecogold a call.  Between the Ecogold competition videos and the blog entries, no other company in eventing better understands the importance of promoting the riders it sponsors.

The Chronicle published a piece today about riders withdrawing from Rolex and added Holly Payne's Madeline, Barbara Crabo and Everready, Clayton Fredericks (AUS) and The Frog, Heelan Tompkins (NZL) and Sugoi, and Sandra Donnelly (CAN) and Buenos Aires to our previous list of Oliver Townend's Carousel Quest, Woodburn, TruLuck, Connaught, Ballynoecastle, Bobby, and Vaugnted.  There are even more horses I believe, including Nicki Henley, and one of Jose Ortelli's horses. This list will only grow as Rolex nears.

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Comment for the day - John R.O.C.K.S
Thanks for doing this...FUN!!

"Ok, I just got through an entire sentence about the French army without making a single joke, give me some credit."

That made me snort and laugh out loud!!!!

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10, who allowed a stranger's fortune, but can not tolerate the promotion of a close person. Because the same level of contrast between the existence of conflicts of interest, and with strangers does not exist this problem. -

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4, were more proud of things, the more love to hide, the more painful the more love fuss. -


26, work twenty-first century survival rule is: build a personal brand, put your name into money. -

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▲ every adult has his glory and pain of life, real friends Do not to touch his pain. -


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▲ to think, think, listen, look, like words, Cautious advantage of doing so is to make yourself a little less regret. We do one thing like this before the first consequence, we think about things first to the distant, very carefully indeed, in order to avoid harm to others, to reduce their own after regret. Use the words mind, you have to consider the consequences, this is a very important point when dealing with others. -

39, love is like a person's heart, marriage is tied to a person's heart, love is the swallow a person's heart -

▲ with optimism and a positive attitude, good with people to grasp the sense of proportion, so that others allow themselves to be a happy man, make yourself happy heart to become like the sun's energy to radiation, others, warm people, so the family friends and even the broader community, from himself to get a little gratifying reasons. -


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Professor Yu Dan

▲ villain is no big vision, to seize the front of a small cheap people. -

▲ confused mostly because the vision is not big enough, how can you know what frogs do a brighter future? -

38, human nature is greedy, but not greedy society will not progress. -

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▲ you want to do a people willing to share with you and you can communicate, the key is for you to have a light and spacious harbor. -

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33, any fool can lure a girl; but know how to leave her only mature men can. -

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53, -

18, who live to eat if you rely on that rice is not called rice, called the feed. -


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6, the killer of marriage and sometimes not having an affair, but time. -


▲ your tolerance point, in fact, to give myself to a brighter future. -

32, stupid man + dumb woman = marriage; dumb man + smart woman = divorce; smart man + dumb woman = affair; smart man + smart woman = romance. -

▲ a person's vision of the two functions: one is to go out, to expand infinitely wide world; the other is inward, the infinitely deep to discover the heart. -

-

▲ to learn the limited knowledge mastery, into their lives. To the side of science, while to one side applications. -

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virtuous benevolence of people who can truly brave soul. -


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▲ -

54, three rows, must be my teacher, Three Musketeers, there must be a strong, triangle, must be an injury. -

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▲ building a harmonious society, is to bring everyone into the harmony of different voices in the collective voices. Adhere to the true harmony is in different voices, different points of view under the premise of a tolerance for others, a kind of integration. -


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▲ only to establish their own inner value system in order to put pressure into a tension of life -

29, the earth is in motion, a person will not always in a bad position. -

36, slip of the tongue is accidentally telling the truth. -


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31, there is a people only do two things: you are successful, he envy you; you fail, he laugh at you. -


▲ successful career, your heart is not necessarily ideal. -

47, the real wealth is a way of thinking, rather than one month revenue figures. -

41, the meaning of life is not to get a good hand, but rather to lay a worthless hand. -

23, Life is like a green leaf, over time, gradually become yellow, but his veins still so clearly visible. -


34, who has two eyes, all parallel, so it should be an equal human being; human ear is divided on either side, so we can not unbalanced side of the story; people, although only one heart, but there are about two an atrium, so things must not only think for themselves, but also for other people think. -

fifty-four a little about human nature summary -

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▲ man of arrogance, pride is the inner strength of character. -

52, shown is a hero, is reflected talent is apparent fools. -

1, what a show off, shows what is missing inside -

49 monster beats, married men and women who did not -

2, a place where more people care about is where most of his inferiority. -

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-

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