At the halfway stage of the Defender Burghley Horse Trials cross-country today (Saturday 6 September), Harry Meade holds first and second with Cavalier Crystal and Et Hop Du Matz on 33.3 and 35.1 respectively. But 23-year-old Alice Casburn and her reliable five-star partner Topspin have gone into third.
This is their fourth Burghley and 10th five-star start and they seemingly cruised around the Derek di Grazia cross-country track today, just picking up 4.4 time-faults for finishing 11 seconds over the 11min 24sec optimum time.
Alice and Topspin were initially given two flag penalties, but these were removed following a review.
“He was absolutely amazing and I definitely felt the pressure today – if anything goes wrong, it’s certainly not on his part,” said Alice. “I actually managed to enjoy myself this time and soak it in.”
Alice revealed that she had a hair analysis test undertaken on Topspin to try and understand why he hasn’t always thrived in the dressage phase.
“The analysis basically just told me that it is because he doesn’t see the point,” said Alice, who scored 31.4 to sit in 20th after the dressage. “Normally I get really bogged down in the dressage and that I’m getting ready for Burghley and my flatwork isn’t good enough, but I didn’t get hyper-fixated on it this year.
“We took him for a jump before his dressage yesterday and just tried to keep his morale high and I think we’ve finally got it right.”
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Topspin, who is a home-bred 17-year-old, owned by Alice’s mother, Caroline, looks as fit and well as ever at this year’s Burghley.
“We’ve just tried to keep him out as much as possible and we’ve done less events this year,” explained Alice. “He loves showjumping, so he’s gone out and done a lot of that, and I suppose we’ve just got less caught up about the result.
“I spoke to him the whole way round today because it helps him relax and breathe – I was very vocal today.”
Burghley Horse Trials cross-country: fast rounds and promising horses
British-based Frenchman Gaspard Maksud and Zaragoza have slotted into fourth at this stage after their Burghley cross-country round, which saw them pick up 5.6 time-faults.
“She’s a cracking horse and tried her hardest for me –I couldn’t be prouder,” said Gaspard of the 12-year-old mare, owned by Martin Thurlow and Jane Young. “She’s a big galloper, those kind of fences she loves and she tried so hard for me.
“I took a bit more time to set her up to not make silly mistakes and it all paid off.”
New Zealand’s Caroline Powell and the promising 13-year-old gelding High Time, who she co-owns alongside Ruth Armstrong, Serena Greenwell, Jo West, Tom Craig and Annabel Jenks, put in a super-smooth round to jump clear and pick up 11.2 time-faults to currently sit in sixth.
“He was amazing out there. He’s a relatively new horse for me and he was foot-perfect today,” said Caroline. “He’s very exciting and just loves the cross-country – I was always very excited to get him over these bigger cross-country fences. The course walked well and rode well.”
Ireland’s Sam Watson had his hands full during his cross-country round with Ballyneety Rocketman, but they jumped clear, picking up 23.2 time-faults to currently sit in 10th.
“My stirrup broke early on and I had to balance on my knee,” explained Sam. “My horse started as I wanted him to for the first three minutes but then he opened up after the Cottesmore Leap and I had a brake malfunction.
“To give credit to my horse, his footwork was amazing – his rideability wasn’t, but his desire to jump around Burghley was.”
Alex Bragg and Ardeo Premier, who were in ninth after the dressage, got off to a good start on their cross-country round, but ran out at the corner at the Dairy Mound at fence 9b. They also ran out at the second part of the Pedigree Brushes at fence 16 and opted to retire.
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Former web features editor, point-to-point editor and digital racing editor
Gemma is an experienced journalist, who was a member of H&H staff from 2014 to September 2025. She is passionate about all equestrian sports, including racing and point-to-pointing. She has enjoyed riding out for top trainers Nicky Henderson and Charlie Appleby and took part in a charity Flat race at Epsom in August 2018. Gemma’s has reported from numerous five-star events around Britain and Europe, as well as European championships.
