Pre-event Burghley favourite’s competition comes to a disappointing end on cross-country day: ‘Up until there, he was amazing’
A smooth, largely error-free round from Sarah Bullimore and Corimiro ended in the cruellest fashion
Sarah Bullimore’s bid for the title at the Defender Burghley Horse Trials ended in the cruellest possible fashion, with a fall at the last cross-country fence after what had, up to that point, been a smooth and largely error-free ride with Corimiro.
The 10-year-old home-bred, owned by Sarah’s husband Brett alongside Christopher and Susan Gillespie and Bruce Saint, had gone into the week as the pre-event favourite, with data analytics company EquiRatings giving him a 21% win chance on the back of previous top-10 five-star finishes at Pau and Badminton.
A dressage score of 33.6 – slightly below what EquiRatings had projected – left the pair sixth overnight, with Sarah admitting to some disappointment after the test.
Cross-country looked set to put that disappointment right. The pair made light work of some of the day’s toughest questions. “Up until [the last fence], he was amazing,” Sarah said afterwards.
“There were some really short distances, and he’s a massive striding horse, so I did think, I hope I’m going to have the control. But he was absolutely fabulous. I think we put the right number of strides in everywhere I’d planned.”
Corimiro carried that same fluency into the penultimate fence, with a provisional flag penalty from earlier on course cleared as they approached the last.
With the finish in sight and an eye on trying to get as close as possible to the optimum time, they overshot the turn to the last. Corimiro twisted in order to jump the fence and Sarah was unseated. She was quickly back on her feet, but looked bitterly frustrated.
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“He just got a bit strong coming for home,” Sarah said. “He is strong anyway – a couple of places he got a bit strong, and then I got him back.
“We had a lovely shot to the second-to-last, and then coming around the corner, you couldn't really see the last fence.
“I said ‘Whoa’, but he knew he was coming to the finish, went a little bit numb and said, ‘I’m keeping going.’”
Sarah's attempts to shorten his stride and win back some control came too late.
“He wouldn’t really turn – I tried to come a little bit wider to give us more room to shorten him, but he wasn’t really having it.”
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Oscar joined Horse & Hound in October 2023 and is the magazine’s dressage editor and sports manager, overseeing coverage of equestrian sport. After studying equine science at Myerscough College, he spent four years working for leading dressage rider Emile Faurie, competing at the 2015 National Dressage Championships and travelling with the yard to CDIs including Aachen and Saumur. He holds a master’s degree in Literature from York St John University (2021).