Michael Jung made the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials cross-country track look like a walk in the park and lead the way at the halfway point.
Riding La Biosthetique-Sam FBW, the German combination are the only ones to go inside the optimum time of 11min 34sec at this point, finishing with two seconds to spare.
“Sam is an amazing horse. I was nervous about how everything would work but he is so trusting in me,” said Michael. “He was strong at the start, but settled after The Lake at fence eight. He was a bit tired after fence 21, but I said ‘come on’ and at the end he felt as fresh as he did in the first minute of the course.”
Michael currently sits 17 penalties clear of his nearest rival.
Third out on course was Alex Bragg who was equal best Brit after the dressage, lying in 18th place. He put in a lovely round riding Zagreb to finish clear, with 12.4 time-faults, and they lie in second at the moment.
Badminton final scores
“It’s hard work out there, but halfway round I thought to myself ‘this is going well’. My horse helped me out and we know each other so well as I’ve had him since he was a youngster,” said Alex, who used to play professional rugby and is a farrier. “It’s mentally hard for the rider as there is so much to think about, but I’m thrilled and he finished well.”
Third place is currently held by Mark Todd and Leonidas II, who jumped clear but incurred 15.2 time-faults.
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“It’s hard work out there and there’s so much going on for horses to look at,” said Mark.
So far, there have been 17 cross-country completions, with 12 clear rounds. 15 combinations have either retired or been eliminated on course.
Don’t miss this week’sH&H(out now), which includes a 16-page Badminton pull-out with full form guide, course map and more. Next week’s H&H (out on Thursday 11 May) will have comprehensive 25-page Badminton report, bringing you all of the news, analysis and statistics.
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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.
