‘Typical dad, my initial thought was that there could not have been too many in it!’ admits Mark Phillips after Zara beats +60 to British open title

Last weekend was quite unusual. The British open championship ran at Hartpury and a few hundred miles away, in Aachen, the world’s leading horses and riders did battle for the quadrennial eventing World Championship crown.

Having run all our national championships for so many years at Gatcombe, they always have a special place in my heart. For my daughter Zara to win her first national title in the open on the 17-year-old Class Affair was particularly nostalgic after he has let her down frequently at five-star.

Typical dad, my initial thought was that there could not have been too many in it! But there were 41 finishers, 14 eliminations, eight retired and 10 withdrawals. Eric Winter must have given the course a significant upgrade from last year.

I was disappointed with fewer than 50 entries in the novice championship. We used to have 100-plus at Gatcombe, qualifying through regional finals, which have now gone. I remember trying to win this for years, but now people talk more of qualifying for the six- and seven-year-old World Championships at Le Lion d’Angers.

The intermediate championship provides a first glimpse of the possible superstars of tomorrow, so it was pleasing to see Tom Jackson and Kitty King, who had an especially good weekend, up at the sharp end.

I do wonder about the sense of running two- and three-star longs alongside the novice and intermediate championships. Would not many of the horses in those have been prime candidates for the championships? The British open and CCI4*-S were combined this year and perhaps that’s the way to go with the other classes.

Whatever way, making our national championships special flagship events again must be high on the British Eventing agenda.

Small margins determined the Aachen result

I’ve often been sceptical, even critical, about some of the dressage judging at major championships. I do think in Aachen the judges should be commended. Julia Krajewski rode a beautiful clean test to top the leaderboard.

It was strange to see Michael Jung and Ros Canter both fluff one of the flying changes on the diagonal and for them and Laura Collett to be within one mark of each other, just behind Julia.

Giuseppe della Chiesa had the riders’ attention with his World Championships cross-country course – all called it serious, some even five-star, but it did have a plethora of time-consuming alternatives.

Nobody admired the amount of turning and rollbacks that make the time so hard to get, but I fear this was largely dictated by the site, so will be repeated at next year’s Europeans in Avenches and the Olympics in Los Angeles – perhaps this was good practice!

Giuseppe had to be pleased with six inside the time and an additional 47 jumping clears, out of the 85 starters, but may be a little disappointed that 20 failed to get round.

There was huge pressure on the British team after Gemma Stevens and Flash Cooley came to a grinding halt at the coffin.

Credit to Tom McEwen for accepting a few time-penalties by going long at the last corner combination to ensure the team finish. Laura Collett looked amazing, though was lucky to survive a near-disastrous slip turning to the last water, London 52 having lost a shoe. It looked like another canter around the park for Lordships Graffalo, with Ros Canter.

To start thinking “gold” at this stage is the best way to annoy fate, but the Brits ended up with an 11.6-penalty advantage. In the individual, Michael Jung rolled one pole big time, but it didn’t drop. This was his fourth World Championship gold in four attempts, two individual and two team.

Michael is the outstanding rider of our times and was just 0.4 penalties ahead of Lordships Graffalo, the horse equivalent. This was a fair result as Ros made more of a mistake in the dressage. It’s difficult to believe such small margins would determine the result at an outstanding World Championship and create another piece of Aachen history.

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