The Legacy Racing Forum

Tamie Smith admitted on Saturday that she was more nervous that she typically is ahead of today’s show jumping finale — and for good reason. For the first time in 15 years, a U.S. rider was leading the charge following cross country — but while she had the lead, it wasn’t by much. Just 3.6 penalties separated her and second-placed Tom McEwen (GB) and JL Dublin — and then Tom cantered in and laid down a fault-free round, and the pressure was on.

“To be completely honest, I was quite nervous going into the show jumping with him today, because I had an uncharacteristic two rails at the World Championships,” Tamie said. “I was in bronze medal position at that moment and ended up losing that and moving down to ninth. When you’re on a horse that show jumps as well as he does, and then you have two down, you just know that sometimes the odds are just a little bit against you — I mean, he hadn’t had a rail in a few years.”

Here, Tamie credits her show jumping coach, Scott Keach, for his help to get her into the right space to go in and perform under the crushing pressure.

“Scott Keach, who I show jump with, has been instrumental in the progression of myself — [he helped me with] just kind of keeping my cool and understanding how to stay in the moment, and to care enough but not care too much. I think he helped me learn that it was my job to ride him in the right way, and it was his job to jump the jumps, and I’m just glad he did. I’m glad he felt really healthy and strong and full of it, and I think he knew the crowd was there. I feel like everybody carried me over that whole show jump course.”

She needn’t have worried. A pin could have been heard falling in the sold-out Rolex Stadium as Tamie and Mai Baum ticked off fence by fence on Steve Stephens’ challenging track that had elicited more than a few heartbreaker rails. As she cleared the final oxer, she punched the air. The stadium erupted — and a new U.S. champion was born. Tamie added no penalties to her initial dressage mark of 24.2, capturing the victory in the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by MARS Equestrian, becoming the first U.S. winner since Phillip Dutton’s victory in 2008 and the first female winner since Mary King (2011).

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