‘She’s got so much tiger’: H&H talks to Burghley leaders on influential cross-country day

Horse & Hound’s Lucy Elder rounds up the action on cross-country day at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, speaking to leader Piggy March, Tim and Jonelle Price, top British Burghley first-timers Tom Jackson, Bubby Upton and Alice Casburn, plus world champion Ros Canter *Please be patient to allow the video below to load*

Burghley Horse Trials queen Vanir Kamira franked her place as one of the event’s greatest cross-country horses of all time with an eminent performance over Derek di Grazia’s five-star course with Piggy March.

Today was a celebration of two Badminton-winning five-star mares of the finest vintage. Vanir Kamira, evergreen at 17, and Jonelle Price’s ride Classic Moet, two years her senior, bookend the podium.

“She’s got so much tiger,” said Piggy, who heads the results at this stage on a score of 23. “I’m so glad it’s over and that she’s all in one piece, I just wanted her to come back and enjoy it like she always has done.

“I find there’s more pressure on me now, because she owes us nothing. So I don’t want to push her past any point, I would love her to finish at the top of the sport and enjoying it. I don’t want to do anything wrong by her, so I’m probably at the stage where I pressurise myself. It’s important to me that she is well and happy. The day that she’s not, I’ll put my hand up and come home.”

That same sense of pressure is felt, too, by Jonelle. The New Zealand rider and Classic Moet rose from 25th overnight with their trademark clear to hold third ahead of the final phase on a score of 32.2.

“She’s so well known for her cross-country prowess, for her speed, that if I do anything other than go fast and clear, it’s all on my shoulders,” said Jonelle, the only rider to make the time of 11 minutes 20 seconds – coming home with three seconds to spare, even with a broken stopwatch.

“We come here making sure we tick all the boxes in terms of preparation. But you never quite know when that battery is going to run out! It could have happened in France last week, but no, it waited for Burghley – just one of the challenges to add to this track, but how lucky am I to sit on a mare like this.”

Former winner Tim Price is sandwiched between the pair with Vitali on 26.5, retaining their second place after dressage amid the leaderboard shifts around them.

“It was a lovely, pleasant surprise with how well he coped with everything,” said Tim.

“We were much more down on the clock at some points – we finished 13 seconds over, but we would have been maybe 25 or so earlier on – so he really pulled a lot back. Credit to him and I’m really excited about him.”

While Vitali counts the Olympics on his CV, he is relatively inexperienced at this top level – Burghley was just his second five-star following his debut at Luhmühlen. Showjumping is his Achilles heel, but with impressive cross-country clears at both his five-star starts over very different courses, this is an exciting rising star for Tim’s string.

The younger faces making their mark alongside the pair of five-star equine matriarchs, were in many ways, the two threads that weave the story of the top 10.

Tom Jackson and the elegant grey Capels Hollow Drift followed up their sparkling Badminton with a classy Burghley performance to sit fourth overnight (32.5).

“It was hard work out there, but he got his second wind at the top of the course and then flew home,” said Tom, who was held on course owing to Sammi Birch and Findus PFB’s fall.

“[Being held on course] is six of one and half a dozen of the other really. We were in a nice rhythm which was broken, but it gave me an opportunity to get some air back in his lungs, so it’s hard to say. I just know that I’m super proud!”

Pencos Crown Jewel, fourth at Bicton’s one-off CCI5* last year, proved herself a true five-star horse in a slick round with Ros Canter to take provisional fifth on 36.2. Meanwhile, Burghley first-timers Bubby Upton (Cola III) and Alice Casburn (Topspin) powered into the top 10 to sit seventh and eighth respectively.

It was an influential day on Derek di Grazia’s first Burghley Horse Trials cross-country course. Overnight leaders Kitty King and Vendredi Biats broke a frangible device at the Fairfax & Favour Boot Racks. While it added a costly 11 penalties, the pin saved a fall and the pair remain in touch with the leaders in sixth.

Sarah Bullimore and Corouet, who led day one and were in third after dressage, walked home from the Leaf Pit after a run-out. And it was not Oliver Townend’s day, with two falls.

A total of 31 of the 51 cross-country starters made it through the finish, with 24 clears and just one – Jonelle and Classic Moet – remaining on their dressage score.

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