Laura Graves and Verdades Photo: Mary Phelps

The stands were packed for the warm up at the Thomas & Mack arena in Las Vegas, USA, more noticably for the Dressage than the earlier morning show jumping. After the draw, Steffen Peters, winner of the FEI World Cup™ Dressage title at Las Vegas in 2009 with Ravel, will go in 16th place tomorrow with Legolas. But American eyes will also be closely watching the performance of their brightest new star, Laura Graves, who, despite an early draw in fourth spot, is expected to finish well up the leaderboard with Verdades at the end of the opening competition and to be in strong contention in Saturday’s Reem Acra Freestyle finale. Announcer Nicho Meredith had to address the crowd asking them to be respectful of all countries giving equal applause as each rider used their designated time in the arena. But they could not contain themselves for Laura Graves and Verdades, as they looked relaxed, fresh and powerful in the early spotlight of the week. Then they were off to the MGM Grand Hotel, for the draw, where she will be going fourth in the Grand Prix today. Go Laura and “Diddy”. Here is today’s start list.