A tremendous crowd was on hand to witness the CIC three-star cross-country portion of the equestrian triathlon at The Event at Rebecca Farm on a picturesque Saturday afternoon in the Flathead Valley.

As the hillside near the course’s first water feature filled with spectators yearning for a thrilling third day of competition, the world-class riders and horses did not disappoint.

The overall standings took shape heading into today’s show jumping competition — the final event of the triathlon.

Sitting in eighth place after dressage, James Alliston of Great Britain, who currently lives in California, dominated his go of the cross-country course aboard Mojo to move into second place overall. His score of 57.4 included just 2 points of time penalties, giving him the greatest leap on the leaderboard of any rider.

“He’s an ex-racehorse,” Alliston said of his 12-year-old gelding.

“I don’t think you come all the way from California to hack around. I knew the course was going to be hard to make the time that I wanted, but it’s nice being on a horse as fast as he is. He’s been a bit inconsistent. He’s always been a good jumper, but the flatworks have been a bit tougher and the changes sort of wound him up quite a bit. This show is nice because I had a lot of time to work with him after the dressage.”

Alliston will be chasing Matthew Brown of Petaluma, Calif., whose 8-year-old gelding Super Socks BCF scored a 54.5, improving his second place position to the top spot of the CIC three-star class.

“I couldn’t have been happier with that horse,” Brown said.

“I really felt like it was a tough course.

“I did get my stick out a couple of times on the course, which I normally don’t do with him because he’s normally taking off with me,” Brown added.

“He was quite strong, but I think he was really on it after that.”

Brown posted a 47.3 dressage score and was in second place behind Hawley Bennett-Awad, but Bennett-Awad’s 57.9 cross-country run included 10.8 time penalty points and dropped her into third place.

Aboard 14-year-old Gin & Juice, Bennett-Awad was nearly tossed from the mare after her hooves clipped a jump in the second water feature, but she held on and repositioned herself while pulling on the reigns to avoid a nasty spill.

Despite the incident, Bennett-Awad marveled at the speed her mare showed.

“She was awesome. I couldn’t have asked for a better go,” Bennett-Awad said.

“Right out of the box, I just kind of stayed in that same rhythm the whole way around the course. I had a little bit of a dicey moment at the last water, and it was great because after that she jumped spectacular for the last five fences.”

With the drastic changes on the leaderboard after two events, the stakes are high for today’s show jumping. The competition will be fierce, but as Brown noted, and the competitors agreed, any finish at the world-class Event is good enough for them.

“I’m going to ride the best I can tomorrow,” Brown said, “but to be perfectly honest it would take a lot to go wrong tomorrow for me to feel the weekend wasn’t a super success.”

The highly competitive three-star class featured one local rider. Jil Walton of Kalispell moved from 12th to 10th place after her cross-country go. She scored an 85.5 after 26.8 points of time penalties on her 10-year-old mare, Dee Dee Chaser.

“My mare is really careful into the water, so she turned fine, but I felt like I was in the air for a couple of weeks.” Walton said.

“I thought the hardest thing was the second water, and it was hard for me because I got tired. I was being pretty speedy in the beginning, but then I was slow at the end so I had a lot of time penalties. I think it was mostly my fitness. My mare was amazing.”

While Brown, Alliston, Bennett-Awad and Walton set there eyes on the show jumping competition today at 8 a.m., the three-star class agreed that The 2014 Event at Rebecca Farm is, yet again, a smashing success.