Britain’s Tom McEwen has moved into third place after a brilliant run round the Badminton Horse Trials cross-country course, at the event presented by Mars Equestrian.
Tom and Toledo De Kerser successfully put a fall at Badminton 2022 behind them as they tackled this year’s course in impressive fashion. The 16-year-old Diamant De Semilly gelding is a true athlete and encountered no real difficulties on Eric Winter’s course, which had attracted some controversy in advance of cross-country day.
Tom and Toledo, owned by Fred and Penny Barker, Jane Inns and Tom’s mother Ali’s, put a super dressage score on the board to lie fifth overnight on 23.6. They now sit third behind Austin O’Connor and Colorado Blue and Tim Price on Vitali, with Gemma Stevens and Jalapeno in fourth.
“I had a foot-perfect jumping performance really,” said Tom. “The ground is horrific. It has now gone seriously tacky and holding, but he was unreal. I have messed up here too many times with the most amazing horse, so I came here this year with the idea of having fun.
“The ground was really hard on them, although out the back it was very good going and where I could recover and gain a bit back, he was recovering well. You’ve got to have the mindset that we’re going to have some more rain tonight and tomorrow, so it’s going to be hard work again tomorrow. So leaving some in the tank may not be the worst thing in the world.”
After lying second overnight, Kitty King and Vendredi Biats had a disappointing end to their 2023 Badminton campaign when they had a heavy fall on the landing side of fence five, the Countryside Alliance Stick Pile.
Caroline Powell had a disappointing round, with two refusals on Greenacres Special Cavalier. She and Chris Mann’s plucky young mare showed their class in the dressage phase, lying 13th overnight on a score of 27.4, but it was not to be their day on the Badminton Horse Trials cross-country.
The 10-year-old mare dropped a back leg on the step up to the Holland Cooper owl hole at fence 12ab, resulting in a stop, and they had a second refusal at the rail into the LeMieux Mound at fence 17. But Caroline expertly guided the mare home safely.
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