Her Olympic team-mate Tom McEwen, second after the first phase on Fred and Penny Barker, Jane Inns and Ali McEwen’s Toledo De Kerser, will set an early standard from among the leaders as he is fourth out on the track at 11.42am.
Kitty King, who produced a five-star personal best of 24.8 to sit in third on her European team gold medallist Vendredi Biats, will kick off her cross-country campaign at 1.26pm. The grey will be cheered on by his band of owners, Diana Bown, Sally Lloyd-Baker, Sally Eyre and Samantha Wilson.
The Luhmühlen winner Mollie Summerland bids to cement her dazzling Badminton debut on fourth-placed Charly Van Ter Heiden, who will tackle the course at 1.22pm, with Kitty hot on her heels.
Badminton final scores
Oliver Townend has two horses in the top 10 and will start on Paul and Diana Ridgeon’s Swallow Springs (currently equal sixth) – at 11.58am. His second ride, Karyn Shuter, Angela Hislop and Val Ryan’s Ballaghmor Class, lies equal eighth and is due out at 4.38pm.
Piggy March is joint sixth with Oliver riding Vanir Kamira, and they set out to defend their title at 12.10pm.
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Ros Canter is another double-handed at the business end of the leader board. Her own and Caroline Moore’s world champion Allstar B starts from 12th place at 11.54am, while Michele Saul’s 10th-placed Lordships Graffalo is due off at 4.34pm.
Other riders to watch are Pippa Funnell, who has 11th-placed MGH Grafton Street running at 4.42pm and Billy Walk On (equal 16th) at 12.02pm. William Fox-Pitt also has two rides, with his 15th-placed Little Fire due out at 4.30pm.
The reigning European champion JL Dublin is set for his five-star cross-country debut under Nicola Wilson at 11.50am. The Lamberts and Deirdre Johnston’s 11-year-old is currently in 13th spot on 26.5.
There are just two non-British riders in the top 10, America’s Tamie Smith – fifth on Mai Baum – and Kiwi Amanda Pottinger, whose Just Kidding is equal eighth with Ballaghmor Class. Tamie starts her cross-country round at 12.26pm, while Amanda goes at 12.46pm
The cross-country action tomorrow starts at 11.30am. Brit Kirsty Chabert is the pathfinder riding her father John Johnston and Carole Somers’ mare Classic IV. Her French husband Arthur Chabert heads out on Goldsmiths Imber at 3.38pm.
Kylie Roddy is the final rider listed on the Badminton Horse Trials cross-country times, starting at 4.58pm on the Fox family’s SRS Kan Do (20th after dressage on 29.4).
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Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
