Badminton Field Thins by Five on Sunday Morning – Including Top Ten Contender

The field has further thinned at this morning’s final horse inspection at the MARS Badminton Horse Trials, with five cross-country finishers bowing out of the competition ahead of today’s showjumping finale.

Two horses were withdrawn before the horse inspection, including one from the top ten: that was Will Rawlin’s Ballycoog Breaker Boy, with whom he sat seventh after adding just 5.6 time penalties yesterday. The other morning withdrawal was Kylie Roddy’s SRS Kan Do, who was overnight 40^th, having added 20 jumping penalties at the Mayston Hollow at 26ABC yesterday.

It wasn’t wholly plain sailing for the remaining 43 horses presented to the ground jury of Christina Klingspor, Amanda Miller, and Angela Tucker, either: four were sent to the holding box, and of those, just one ultimate passed and will go on to showjump. The successful party was the USA’s Tiana Coudray and Cancaras Girl, who had led the dressage on Thursday but suffered a tricky second half of their cross-country round yesterday to sit 45^th overnight.

Two horses were re-presented, but ultimately spun: Ireland’s Sarah Ennis and her 2023 European Championships ride Grantstown Jackson, who had sat 19^th overnight with just 3.6 time penalties added yesterday, and China’s Alex Hua Tian and Chicko, 34^th after hitting the frangible device at the Vicarage Vee and adding 14 time penalties, will not showjump this afternoon. The final pair held, Great Britain’s Tom Rowland and Dreamliner – 18^th with 5.6 time penalties yesterday – opted not to re-present, and withdrew from the holding box.

These changes allows for some movement into the business end of the leaderboard – Switzerland’s Felix Vogg and his Maryland winner Cartania, who had a turbulent round for 7.2 time penalties, will now step into tenth place, while Ireland’s Sam Watson and Ballyneety Rocketman and Harry Meade and pathfinder Et Hop du Matz will step up to nineteenth and twentieth places, respectively, putting them into the afternoon showjumping session.

That gives us a neat 40 horses and riders to see through to showjumping today, in two halves: the lower-placed 20 horses and riders will take to the ring from 11.30 a.m. (6.30 a.m. EST), while the top 20 will jump from 14.45 BST (9.45 a.m. EST).

Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Two-phase leaders Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo have a comfortable lead of 6.6 penalties over second-placed Harry Meade and Annaghmore Valoner, which gives them a rail in hand plus plenty of time, too, at this stage. From Harry onwards, though, it’s all getting rather tight: a single rail spans second to sixth, while two rails down for Harry at this stage would topple him all the way down to eighteenth. We can expect plenty of movement throughout the leaderboard today after yesterday’s 11:30 cross-country effort – and you can make sure you don’t miss a moment by tuning in on Badminton TV. We’ll be back with the full story at the end of the day’s competition – in the meantime, Go Eventing!