Laura Collett and Grand Manoeuvre are back at Badminton in 2017
It’s always exciting to see the list of entries (and those waitlisted) for each year’s Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials
This year, as usual, sees a host of top class combinations currently listed including eight entries from Australia; Chris Burton on TS Jamaimo and Graf Liberty, Sam Griffiths on the 2014 winner Paulank Brockagh, Andrew Hoy on The Blue Frontier and Rutherglen, Shane Rose on Shanghai Joe, Bill Levett on Alexander NJ and Paul Tapner on Bonza King of Rouges
France has several entries including Rio gold and silver medallist Astier Nicolas on Piaf De B’Neville, another Rio success story, Jonty Evans on Cooley Rorke’s Drift is one of Ireland’s 10 entries and there are six combinations listed for the USA
Several of the recently named 2017 New Zealand eventing squad members will be competing including Sir Mark Todd on both Leonidas II and NZB Campino, as he told us in our interview at Puhinui. Sadly Jonelle Price is not competing (Faerie Dianimo has a short term injury) but Tim has both Ringwood Sky Boy and Bango with Xavier Faer high up on the Wait List
But of course it is the local combinations that are the crowd favourites and who are we tipping this year? Far too early to tell as this list is a moving target until the day of the first horse inspection but we’re really hoping to see Tina Cook on cross country day on all three of her horses; Star Witness, Calvino and Billy The Red and Nicola Wilson on Annie Clover. Laura Collett, Gemma Tattersall and Pippa Funnell will all be exciting to watch but it seems strange to have no William Fox-Pitt
However the current master of eventing will be there. The defending champions Michael Jung and La Biosthetique Sam will be back and so far the German winter is proving kind for their preparation. Ingrid Klimke and Horseware Hale Bob are also one of the most likely contenders in the field – we’d love to see Ingrid win at Badminton!
But there is a way to go yet – the first strong indications of top form will be at Belton International Horse Trials from 30th March – 2nd April. We’ll be there every day to bring you all the updates and interviews with the riders and there will be plenty of cross country video footage to check out their form so stay tuned ............
