Jock’s back at Burghley

      Murray Lamperd and Under the Clocks

It is a long way from Australia to the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials and the road hasn’t always been easy for two first time riders who performed their dressage in the big arena today. Murray Lamperd from the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria brought his off the track thoroughbred Under the Clocks to Badminton last year and since then has been juggling riding here in the UK and trying to keep his riding school business going in Australia.

Despite a few disappointments such as a run out at Badminton on cross country last year and a gear check failure at Barbury earlier this year where they were eliminated for wearing a breastplate ( “It’s certainly a learning curve - I won’t do that again!”) Murray’s tenacity has today been repaid. Their dressage test was relaxed and smooth, maybe not as extravagant as some, but certainly good enough to score 50.2, beating many more fancied combinations and finishing the day in equal 17^th place

Since last year Murray has been flying to and from the UK, as time, money and family commitments permit, to keep riding Under the Clocks who is currently kept at Chris Burton’s yard in the UK

Murray Lamperd interview

      Nat Blundell and Algebra

Another Australian based rider, Natalie Blundell from Yass in New South Wales, has been based with Andrew Hoy since her arrival in the UK earlier this year and Andrew, who is himself in fifth place after the dressage, helped Nat in the warm-up. Her 16 year old grey thoroughbred Algebra, another off the track success story, is a well known horsey identity in Australia but sadly we won’t be seeing him competing again back home as he is now for sale. With a score of 59.8 Nat and Algebra are in 48^th place going into tomorrow’s cross country phase

Nat Blundell interview

      Bill Levett and Improvise

Bill Levett has much more experience at big events than Murray or Nat but his 10 year old horse Improvise is having just his second start at 4* level here. Ever the perfectionist Bill felt he could have done a little better and Improvise (who has the delightful stable name of Womble) had a little gawk at the crowd during the walk but they still scored a good 48.7 and finished in 15th place overall

Bill Levett interview

However it was another antipodean Jock Paget riding Clifton Promise (below) who took the lead this morning from Sam Griffiths with the first sub-40 score of 38.8. Jock retired Promise on the cross country course at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games after a run out on course

“I wanted to be World Champion and I tried my best” said Jock “But he’s an older horse so after the 20 penalties I decided he didn’t need that and we re-routed here where I knew that the going would be good for him. I didn’t want to come back to Burghley on my other horse as he is less experienced and just not ready for this yet”

The only problem for Promise today was that he has done a lot of dressage recently, said Jock

“The test wasn’t quite as good as last year. Because of the preparation for WEG, he’s done two weeks of just dressage which is a lot for a fit thoroughbred”. And for Jock, it’s been a bit of a holiday having only one horse to ride in Normandy “I need to get back to riding multiple horses every day and get some weight off!” (Never fear ladies, he still looks as trim and gorgeous as ever)

       Aoife Clark is looking forward to cross country on Vaguely North "He's a horse that loves to run and jump"

The final session of the day brought a flurry of activity and some good tests from Aoife Clark, William Fox-Pitt and Andrew Nicholson to put them into the top ten.

Aoife, riding The Duchess of Bedford’s Vaguely North was clearly delighted with their test and gave the 14-year-old New Zealand-bred thoroughbred a big hug at the end. They scored 44.7 to be in seventh place at the end of the day

Silence descended around the arena in anticipation as William rode in on Catherine Witt’s Bay My Hero (below). They produced a strong and very polished test but couldn’t quite topple Jock, scoring 39.5 to put him in second place. Bay My Hero, who put on quite a show at the first horse inspection, has been waiting in the wings as William’s back up horse for WEG and is great shape thanks to his team at home that have kept him ticking over in William’s absence

“He’s a bit of a show off” said William “He’s very excited to be here and it’s quite a long wait for him until late Friday afternoon”

The very last rider of the day was the reigning champion Andrew Nicholson riding Avebury (below), a partnership that is aiming for their third Burghley championship in a row. It was a good test that pulled a nine for the extended canter but lower marks in one of the flying changes and the half pirouette meant they scored 40.5 and he was just out of the top three coming in for the press conference at the end of the day. However you can bet that Andrew, who is launching his book Focused here during the event, will be doing everything he can on cross country to be in the top three tomorrow night

“I’ve had a bit of a lean year” he said “I’ve made a few mistakes but I am banking on this one to dig me out”

“He (Avebury) is a very special horse, part of the family. He knows it’s a big one; he knows he hasn’t come here to look around”

With only two penalty points separating the top five riders, tomorrow is going to be an exciting day, especially if William Fox-Pitt's very preganant wife Alice goes into labour!

Top six placings after dressage

Full Results after dressage here

View our Burghley photo galleries here

View all dressage tests on Burghley TV here