Bramham Horse Trials: William Fox-Pitt and Chilli Morning win senior CCI3*

William Fox-Pitt and Chilli Morning retained their Equi-Trek Bramham Horse Trials title this afternoon when they jumped a faultless clear in the senior CCI3*.

Christopher Stone’s stallion was the overnight leader and had a fence in hand to win, but didn’t need it.

“Yesterday he was fairly feisty, so I was aware he could take the fences on too much, but I was pleased he was rideable,” said William.

Sir Mark Todd also went clear on Diane Brunsden and Peter Cattell’s Leonidas II to hold the runner-up spot.

“When you’ve got William Fox-Pitt in front of you, you know there aren’t going to be many mistakes, so all I worried about was getting the clear on my horse,” said Mark. “It was a decent track and the time was tight. Anything can happen.”

There were only eight showjumping clears in the time in the class.

William said: “Di Boddy is a very good course-designer. She’s very aware of the arena and the layout and used a variety of things to test us, plus a tight time. And even the horses that went inside the time yesterday would have felt their exertions today.”

The main drama of the final session was France’s Mathieu Lemoine, third overnight, falling off when Quickness stopped abruptly in the middle of the treble at fence 10. He was therefore eliminated.

Another Frenchman, Didier Dhennin, moved up from fifth to take third on Opi De Saint Leo.

Paul Sims’ clear on Calador raised him from 11th to fourth, while Michael Owen’s with The Highland Prince elevated him from 13th to sixth.

Nicola Wilson had just the final part of the treble down to take fifth on Annie Clover, while she also finished eighth on Beltane Queen.

Jeanette Brakewell slotted into seventh on Lets Dance (up from 10th with four faults). Lucie McNichol (Zeus Of Rushall) and Donatien Schauly (Seculaire) had two down each to fall from sixth and eighth to ninth and 10th.

Apart from Mathieu, the main victim of the final phase was Vittoria Panizzon (Merlots Magic) who dropped from fourth to 12th with three fences down and two time-faults.

All H&H’s online Bramham coverage

Results

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Pippa Roome

H&H magazine editor and eventing editor

Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.