Lucinda Fredericks (pictured) will be the leader going into the show jumping tomorrow after finishing just 2sec outside the cross-country time at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials.
Dressage leaders Lucinda and Headley Britannia took two long routes — at the Shogun Hollow (fence 7) and the Colt Pond (fence 14). But the Burghley winner stormed home to add just 0.8 time-penalties.
“I could have gone quicker to the last but I just thought, don’t be stupid,” Lucinda told Radio Badminton. “She was feisty from start to finish which didn’t make my life as easy as at Burghley, where the hills took the sting out of her.”
Lucinda thanked the mare’s breeders, Mike and Betty Hounsell, and Emma Robson, who first brought the horse to the Fredericks’s yard when she was a working pupil there. “I love this horse, and you don’t get a horse like this very often,” she said.
Lucinda will go into tomorrow’s show jumping on 35.6. Even if Kim Severson, second after dressage on 35.8 on Winsome Adante, adds no cross-country penalties, Lucinda will be 0.2 of a penalty ahead.
Andrew Nicholson holds second position on Henry Tankerville, having finished exactly on the 12min optimum time.
“He’s a lovely jumping horse, but not the fastest,” said Andrew on Radio Badminton. “But I’m quite confident now that his stamina will get him to the line — I huff and puff more than him. It’s quite a relief for me when I see a jump because he speeds up.”
German rider Peter Thomsen (The Ghost Of Hamish) lies third, while Britain’s Nicola Wilson is fourth on Opposition Buzz.
Andrew was the only one of the first four starters to get home. Pathfinder Daisy Dick fell with Hope Street at the penultimate fence, the Rolex Turn, after which the second element of this was taken out of the course. The first element of the Countryside Quarry (fence 25) was taken out before the start, to reduce the number of drop fences.
Lucy Wiegersma and Beckli fell at the final element of the Spinal Injuries Association Sunken Road (fence 17), while Ruth Edge retired after falling from Marsh Mayfly at the Outlander Bank (fence 8).
Fifteen horses have been withdrawn so far, out of 77 dressage starters.
Andrew Downes’s ride Skwal (number 19) died from “a probable heart attack shortly after leaving the main arena”. He completed the course with a run-out at the Vicarage Vee and some time-penalties, finishing “full of running”, according to a press release.
RESULTS AT LUNCHTIME ON SATURDAY
1. Headley Britannia (Lucinda Fredericks, AUS) 35.6
2. Henry Tankerville (Andrew Nicholson, NZL) 45.2
3. The Ghost Of Hamish (Peter Thomsen, GER) 49.4
4. Opposition Buzz (Nicola Wilson, GB) 50.8
5. WP In Limbo (Clayton Fredericks, AUS) 55.6
6. Bit Of A Barney (Louise Skelton, GB) 60
Visit www.badminton-horse.co.uk for scoreboard updates.
Stay in touch with all the latest from Badminton on Horseandhound.co.uk with twice daily reports from H&H eventing editor Pippa Roome; blogs from H&H Editor Lucy Higginson and Pippa Roome; a daily round up of the best shopping bargains; and a picture gallery of Badminton Horse Trials highlights after the event.
