Even the sun came out to play at Burghley today
Cross country day at any CCI4* event always throws up unexpected outcomes of various sorts but today at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials it certainly wasn’t expected that the equal leaders after dressage – the top two riders in the world – would have the ups and downs that eventuated.
After many years of waiting for Michael Jung to ride at Burghley, his first appearance on the famed cross country was brief. At the Lion Bridge, Michael and his first horse fischerRocana FST fell in the water just before Fence 4 and the pair walked, or rather in Michael’s case, limped home much to the amazement of the vast crowd gathered around the famous bridge. Although no doubt deflated by his first experience at Burghley, Michael could see the humorous side when, arriving back at the stables he was told by his brother to look on the bright side as now his second ride of the day, the legendary La Biosthetique Sam had just moved up one place from sixth after dressage. As it turned out, they were to move up quite a bit more
Prior to Michael’s fall several riders had shown that, although there was plenty of talk about what a huge course it was, it was certainly rideable. Everyone was relieved to see the trail blazer Oliver Townend on his first ride Dromgurrihy Blue make the course look very do-able to come home with only 5.6 time penalties then two Australian riders on pure thoroughbreds, Murray Lamperd riding Under the Clocks and Chris Burton riding Haruzac came home with 7.2 and 6.4 time penalties respectively
Chris also had a ‘moment’ at the The Lion Bridge then had a couple of minor tack malfunctions with the tape that had been applied to Haruzac’s coronet band, after he studded himself in the rein-back during the dressage test, coming loose and trailing behind for a while and the rings on his martingale breaking. Despite all that the pair had a great round to finish in fifth place.
Murray and Under the Clocks (above) have only been reunited for a few weeks but they attacked the course as if they had never been parted. Their clear round moved them way up the leader board from 38th after dressage to 14th at the end of the day and putting them in a position to potentially replicate their top ten finish last year
Sam Griffiths and Paulank Brockagh (above) were out on course soon after and looked to be taking it a little more steadily early in the course. Word had been passed back the regarding The Lion Bridge but Sam and Brocks jumped it beautifully and, although the mare was quite slow to get going at the start of the course she came home strongly to finish with 15.2 time penalties in 15th place. Unfortunately a run out on Happy Times at Discovery Valley later in the day, in third place after the dressage, dropped them out of contention and down to 34th place
Paul Tapner on his first ride Vanir Kamira also picked up 20 penalties at the Discovery Valley; this was an influential fence with six combinations having run-outs here and William Fox-Pitt losing his way and the lead. William and Fernhill Pimms were travelling very well but were held at Fence 23 due to minor repairs having to be done; he then decided to change his plan and take the long route at the next fence, Discovery Valley. He jumped the first element and carried on galloping then realised his mistake but the ‘mental blank’ added 20.4 time penalties to his score to finish the day in 13th place.
William and Fernhill Pimms
William Fox-Pitt
Paul had a better result on his second horse Kilronan (above) who appeared to be eating up the ground with his big loping stride but 11.2 time penalties put them just outside of the top ten heading into the show jumping. However his compatriots Bill Levett and Chris Burton on his second horse TS Jamaimo both moved up into the top ten with fabulous rounds today.
Bill Levett and Improvise
Bill was slightly disappointed with his dressage yesterday, despite it being a PB at this level, but today his horse Improvise gave him a great ride and they head into the show jumping in sixth place, hopefully to replicate their clear round of last year
Chris Burton pumped his fist as he cantered into the Finish area, the first rider to jump clear around the course and under time on his second ride of the day TS Jamaimo (above). The off the track thoroughbred that was Chris’ CCI4* winning catch ride in Adelaide in 2013 had his ears pricked all the way around the course and didn’t hesitate to answer every question put in front of him, finishing in fourth place on 45 penalties, just 2.6 penalties ahead of Chris’ other ride Haruzac in fifth place.
As we were talking to Chris, Jonelle Price riding Classic Moet also completed the course without time penalties to move up from 19th place to third on 44.9 penalties. Just ahead of her is husband Tim in second place on Ringwood Sky Boy with 41.5 penalties; they picked up 2.8 time penalties and an unwanted passenger in the shape of a wasp caught in Tim’s shirt which stung him a couple of times – more about that coming up in our Press Conference video and another article coming up soon
But it was Michael Jung who recovered from his first dunking on fischerRocana FST to come out with all guns firing on La Biosthetique Sam FBW (below). Despite a sore leg Michael produced a copy book round on the horse he knows so well, adding just 0.8 time penalties to finish in the lead yet again. With a score of 40 penalties he has no room to move tomorrow and it is going to be a very exciting finale ....
Results after cross country
1 Michael Jung/La Biosthetique Sam (GER) 39.2 + 0.8 = 40.0
2 Tim Price/Ringwood Sky Boy (NZL) 38.7 + 2.8 = 41.5
3 Jonelle Price/Classic Moet (NZL) 44.9 + 0 = 44.9
4 Christopher Burton/TS Jamaimo (AUS) 45.0 + 0 = 45.0
5 Christopher Burton/Haruzac (AUS) 41.2 + 6.4 = 47.6
6 Bill Levett/Improvise (AUS) 44.9 + 4.8 = 49.7
7 Sir Mark Todd/Leonidas ll (NZL) 41.7 + 8.8 = 50.5
8 Cedric Lyard/Cadeau du Roi (FRA) 39.6 + 11.2 = 50.8
9 Oliver Townend/Dromgurrihy Blue (GBR) 45.8 + 5.6 = 51.4
10 Kristina Cook/Star Witness (GBR) 47.4 + 5.2 = 52.6
