It’s Burton’s Burghley

Equiratings revealed that Chris has the highest percentage of clear rounds at four star level, at 54 percent, but even this did not stop Nobilis hitting four fences in a nail-biting final round.

“He [Nobilis 18] warmed up ok, he was a little bit flat. He’s basically a careful show jumper and I expected him to go well but in the end he got a bit tired and had a few down.”

Chris added that he never expected to have led from start to finish when adding,

Amazingly, this was only Chris’ third completion of the event, having finished third and fourth here last year, as he fell in two previous attempts. It was an Antipodean white wash, taking the first four places, and eighth and ninth places for good measure. 

It was this time last year that Andrew Nicholson sat watching Burghley from the sidelines, recovering from a broken neck. In a remarkable reversal of fortune, the five-time Burghley winner partnered Nereo to finish second here for the third time.

Eventing’s power couple, Tim and Jonelle Price, had mixed fortunes in the show jumping after Ringwood Sky Boy and Tim dropped from second to fourth with three fences down. These mistakes allowed Jonelle to move up on to the podium, improving from her fifth place here last year on the diminutive Classic Moet.

Cedric Lyard finished fifth with the big jumping Cadeau Du Roi, jumping one of the rare clear rounds of the day, whilst Bettina finished sixth on Designer 10 after two fences down.

Bettina admitted to being nervous,

“I was a little bit nervous going into the show jumping. We had such a bad run in Aachen, having four down, but I have to say I was really pleased in general. I came here hoping to have a top ten finish so that’s exciting.”

Oliver Townend’s clear on the “unorthodox” Samuel Thomas II cemented his position in seventh place, making him the best placed British rider for this year’s competition. It was a reversal in fortune after his earlier ride, Dromgurrihy Blue, knocked four fences down.

When asked what made Burghley so special, Oliver, as a previous winner of the event, said,

“It’s the biggest [event] in the world. It’s the hardest to win, you can win the other four stars on a very, very good horse. But it takes an exceptional horse to win Burghley.”

The Richard Jeffery-designed course caused plenty of trouble, with only five clear rounds throughout the day, and caught out plenty of top class combinations, including Andrew Hoy and Rutherglen, who had six fences down. It was also expensive for Mark Todd and NZB Campino, who dropped three places to ninth with two fences down.

Many of the riders attributed the widespread amount of faults to the sticky going in the arena, and that the cross country yesterday took its toll physically on many of the horses.

At the press conference Richard noted that the cross country phase was becoming increasingly technical and that,

“The show jumping has to stay with that. I don’t look at how many clear rounds I have, I always find it interesting to see how many people move. Everybody can have a clear, or four faults, and you end up with the same result. If you look at the top four here, they led all the way through but the ground did make an impact.”

INTERVIEWS:

Final Results:

1) Chris Burton/Nobilis 18 – 49.4.
2) Andrew Nicholson/Nereo -53.2
3) Jonelle Price/ Classic Moet -54.1
4) Tim Price/Ringwood Sky Boy -56.9
5) Cedric Lyard/Cadeau Du Roi -59.6
6) Bettina Hoy/Designer 10 – 61.7
7) Oliver Townend/ Samuel Thomas II – 63
8) Caroline Powell/Onwards and Upwards – 64.4
9) Mark Todd/ NZB Campino – 67
10) Tina Cook/ Star Witness – 68.9

The multi-award winning Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials from September 1-4 has been established as a major international equestrian and social event in the Autumn Sporting Calendar for over 50 years. For more information visit burghley-horse.co.uk