William Fox-Pitt, the first British rider to win Badminton for six years, last triumphed here in 2004
Last year people were wondering if there would be a show jumping phase at Badminton as so many riders were eliminated on the cross country day but today it was a busy morning of show jumping with 37 riders being bustled in and out of the morning session to ensure that they got through on time. With only four withdrawals before the second horse inspection, there were plenty of fit looking horses through to the final phase, reflecting the success of yesterday’s cross country course. British course designer Kelvin Bywater had prepared a show jumping course consisting of 13 obstacles with 16 jumping efforts to be completed in a time of 88 seconds on the large grass arena that, unlike the purpose built arena at the last CCI4* in Kentucky, has undulations and natural slopes to be taken into account.
No doubt the top 20 riders who were riding in the afternoon were watching with interest how the course was riding in the morning. Fences one and two appeared to be the bogey fences, with the distraction for the horses looking through the first fence, which happened to be an oxer, into the crowd and then a curving line around the trees to the second fence, an innocuous looking vertical which caught plenty out.
The early riders and horses are often those with the least experience at this level which this morning included first timers Nicolas Wettstein, the first ever competitor for Equador at Badminton and 36 year old mum Nana Dalton riding Absolut Opposition (above), who both had a relatively good finish to their event with only eight jumping faults and some time faults. For Nana this was quite an emotional moment, riding a 10 year old homebred horse that she has done everything with herself and she is looking forward to coming back next year with this experience under her belt
“Marley (Absolut Opposition) has proved that he’s a four star horse, he’s completed and he’s done it so happily. He’s come out really fresh and well this morning and he’s only 10 years old so if we have a bit of luck and he can stay sound then we’ve got a good future to look forward to and maybe, with a bit more training and polish, we can come back and be competitive”
Young British rider Rose Carnegie also had the thrill of completing at her first ever Badminton Horse Trials while Harry Dzenis, who we spoke to at Chilham Castle, laid to rest the ghost of last year finishing in 46th place on Xam. The time proved hard to make for the first few competitors, including South Africa’s Alexander Peternell riding Asih who produced the first clear jumping round but with one time penalty as did Georgie Spence on Wii Limbo but Louisa Milne Hume and King Eider came up with the goods. It may be that, at their third successive Badminton, Louisa now has the nerves of the final day under control or the fact that the 15 year old Belgian warmblood gelding King Eider is by the show jumping stallion Toulon and has several brothers and sisters on the show jumping circuit in Europe, that they had such a good round but they certainly looked good today.
At the Australian International 3 Day Event in 2013 Chris Burton and TS Jamaimo (above) were the only combination to finish on their dressage score to win the event. They certainly wouldn’t have won here on their dressage score but they came close to finishing on it with a classy clear show jumping round that saw the little Australian thoroughbred kicking up high behind and looking as fit as a fiddle. Unfortunately Chris had picked up 20 penalties on a technicality yesterday – without those he would have finished in fourth place rather than 27th today however he was pragmatic about the experience
Chris Burton
It wasn’t quite a clear round for Gabriel Cury of Brazil riding Grass Valley (above) who was aiming for qualification to Rio 2016 here but just four faults was still celebrated “This has been brilliant – a clear cross country and only one down in the show jumping. This has just been amazing” said the 21 year old “I’m not very good in the dressage and my coach Mark Todd told me after the dressage, just focus on cross country, forget your dressage and it worked for both the cross country and show jumping. I’m so happy”. Gabriel would have also been happy with his prize as the Under 25 rider with best score, winning a Woshipful Co. Of Saddlers saddle.
The fourth clear jumping round of the morning came from the most English sounding Dutch man you will ever meet, Andrew Heffernan. Riding his 2014 WEG team bronze winning Irish Sport Horse Boleybawn Ace Andrew jumped a good clear round to finish in 24th place, having added only 16.8 time penalties to his dressage score in the past few days. Then just before lunch, three of the top ladies in the sport, Jonelle Price, Pippa Funnell and Nicola Wilson on her first horse Beltane Queen added eight jumping faults to their final score which would have been food for thought for those jumping in the afternoon.
Bill Levett and Shannondale Titan
Following the lunchtime presentation of riders when Bettina Hoy and William Fox-Pitt appeared on specially chosen mounts, obviously not wishing to excite their own before the all important show jumping, Bill Levett was the first into the arena. Bill jumped a clear round at Burghley on Shannondale Titan last year but couldn’t quite duplicate it here with two fences down late in the course to finish in 18th place however it was his fifth completion of Badminton, a fact later celebrated with the presentation of an Armada dish.
Bill wasn’t the only one to reach this momentous occasion with two other Australians Paul Tapner and Sam Griffiths also receiving Armada dishes today along with Pascal Leroy of France and Britain’s Nick Gauntlett. Paul and Sam both had one rail on Kilronan and Paulank Brockagh but it wasn’t until he came out of the arena that Sam realised the mare had just tapped one down
“I gave her a big pat so she thinks she jumped clear anyway!” said Sam who finished in 10th place
Ireland’s Michael Ryan and Nicola Wilson then jumped lovely clear rounds which were the last for a while until Aoife Clark added another clear round for Ireland on the Duchess of Bedfordshire’s Vaguely North (below).
“” I’m so thrilled for the horse but more so for his owner Henrietta. It’s been a long while to come back here since 2011 when he went brilliantly on cross country but then had a life threatening injury afterwards so just to be here is great and anything else is a bonus”
Aoife’s bonus was eighth place while Michael’s Lynch’s clear round on Ballylynch Adventure earned him the ninth spot and Nicola Wilson finished in seventh with One Two Many, a horse previously campaigned by Bill Levett and taken over by Nicola in 2012
Mark Todd had just one time fault but was so happy with the way that Leonidas II (above) was jumping that he thought it better not to hurry the horse along.
“He is quite hard to get the time on” said Mark “There was nowhere you could take a tight turn on this course so you just had to keep rolling and I just didn’t want to go any quicker as he was jumping so well. He’s always been a good jumper, he’s got so much power and scope that he could almost be a show jumper but it’s always hard to be sure of a clear round in these circumstances; anything can happen”
His strategy paid off, moving him up to an eventual fourth place, when Bettina Hoy had four faults on Designer 10 and Paul Tapner had four down on Indian Mill, dropping him from sixth to 14th but Paul was not unhappy with how his horses had performed during the big event and he also plans to compete at future World Equestrian Games with daughter Maddie who joined him, along with son Josh, in the media tent
We were now in the final five and Jock Paget entered the arena having had very little warm up on Clifton Lush.
“He just wasn’t jumping well in the warm up and Eric Duvander and I decided to just stand him until the very last moment then jump one fence and take him in. Once he’s in the arena, he pricks his ears, gets up in the air and does his job – the first time we did it was at Burghley in 2011 and it’s worked since although it’s a bit unsettling for me! I would prefer to know he’s jumping like a stag before we go in but we know that this is the best way for him”
William and the first stallion to win a CCI4*, Chilli Morning
Despite, or maybe thanks to the unusual warm up, Jock had just one rail down late in the course but Ingrid Klimke made no such mistake and jumped a beautiful clear round, piling the pressure on the last three to go. Oliver Townend was well aware that Armada could easily come unstuck in this phase and sadly, this was the case. The fences down began early with fences one and two, as the crowd groaned for poor Oliver who finished with sixteen faults as William Fox-Pitt and Chilli Morning entered the arena. Their round was effortlessly clear and the applause was still ringing as Andrew Nicholson readied to enter the arena – he decided to wait a few moments and walked Nereo around as he waited for William to come out.
Soon afterwards a large noise from the crowd as Andrew took out the second fence signalled that William had clinched the title. Two more rails fell and the Fox-Pitt camp excitedly gathered round the laid back chestnut stallion who had just become the 2015 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Champion.
