August 12, 2023 
Bromont belonged to USA’s Boyd Martin. Is Burghley next?
The world no. 10 took the top spot in the CCI4*-S Saturday afternoon in Quebec with his Tokyo Olympic mount Tsetserleg on a final score of 52 points. He also took third with On Cue (56.1). And fifth with Commando 3 (59.3).
Seventeen starters contested Derek di Grazia’s cross country course in the short format division, after Friday’s dressage and show jumping phases. All but three completed the course in the 4*, but none managed the feat without time faults. With heavy rain in the three weeks preceding the event, galloping times were conservative.
“The footing ended up being fantastic,” remarked Martin, who added 18 time penalties to his score on Tsetserleg. “I think the whole field just looked after their horses, when the ground got quite boggy and soft. 80% of the course was very good—it was just small sections where everyone balanced their horses and looked after them a bit.”
Overnight leader Colleen Loach added 22.8 time faults aboard FE Golden Eye to finish on a final score of 54.5 and settle for second place. The Canadian Olympian was riding with an injury after breaking a vertebra only a few weeks ago.
Martin has made no secret that Bromont was a warmup for his top two horses ahead of the CCI5* Defender Burghley Horse Trials in England later this month. It’s job done on the cross country prep front.
“Thomas [Tsetserleg] hasn’t jumped a cross-country jump since June so he was a little rusty at the beginning, but it’s a good fitness run for him,” said Martin. “This was a perfect run over a big course and now we’ll wrap Thomas and ‘Cue’ up in cotton wool and be in England in a couple of weeks!”
He’ll likely be focused on their flat work in the weeks between. Friday’s 34 dressage score was their lowest since 2017 and described by Martin as a “disastrous dressage test.”
The American Olympian has twice contested Burghley since 2002, according to their FEI record, and finished in the top 10 both times. His last appearance was in 2017 aboard Steady Eddie where the pair finished 10th. His best finish was seventh in 2011 with Neville Bardos when they added just a single rail in show jumping to their dressage score.
