Phillip Dutton and Azure Win CCI4*-L at MARS Bromont CCI – Horse Sport
America’s Phillip Dutton currently sits at number 12 in the world on the Eventing world rankings list, is a veteran of seven Olympic Games and FEI World Equestrian Games (each), and is pretty darn happy that (good friend) and fellow Olympian Boyd Martin didn’t have a horse in the CCI4*-L at this year’s MARS Bromont CCI.
Dutton topped the weekend’s marquee event, the CCI4*-L with Azure, owned by Anne, Caroline, and Michael Moran. Together for about a year, the pair admittedly still have work to do on their dressage phase (placed 15th after dressage, they rocketed up into first after a clean cross-country round on Saturday adding just 0.4 penalties for time.) They left the poles in the cups today over the Marc Donovan designed stadium jumping course, adding another 0.4 penalties for exceeding the time allowed, to finish at the top of the leaderboard on a final score of 37.2.
“It was really rewarding the way [Azure] jumped today,” said Dutton after the awards. “We’re still getting to know each other and have been working closely with Lauren Hough trying to get her to slow down, finesse the warm-up and get in the ring. She’s just an excitable horse — she enjoys life, but in a very enthusiastic way.” he laughed. “She’s almost ready for a five-star if I can get her a little bit more competitive on the flat.”
