After a thrilling day of cross country at the Mars Badminton Horse Trials, the leader board after dressage took quite the shakeup to see New Zealand’s Tim Price climb up from third into the top spot, followed by a legend of the British team, William Fox-Pitt rising to second from overnight 8th and Ireland’s Lucy Latter storming into third in her first ever 5 star competition from 46th position after dressage.
The story of the day certainly goes to 27-year-old Badminton and 5 star first timer, Lucy Latta, who put in an incredible round on board RCA Patron Saint to finish in the fastest time of the day – just 1 second over the optimum time to propel herself up the leader board to sit in third place ahead of tomorrow’s show jumping. The 13-year-old bay gelding absolutely lived up to his name, giving all 5’2″ of his minute jockey the absolute ride of a lifetime.
“He was amazing out there he just gallops all day long and he didn’t look at any of the crowds, he stayed listening to me the whole way and he gave me everything he had.” She said of the 16.2hh British Sports Horse, “I had every faith in the horse cross country, but to pull it off is something else! I’m a dot on him, he did so good to listen to my every move out there”. This performance will undoubtedly caught the attention of the Irish team selectors ahead of the Paris Olympics later this year if tomorrow goes well, and particularly if they can improve on their dressage score here of 36.8.
Two-time Badminton winner, Britain’s William Fox-Pitt, gave an absolute masterclass in cross country riding this afternoon with the 12-year-old Grafennacht to add just 2.4 time penalties to give them overnight score of 33 – less than a fence behind the overnight leader, Tim Price – going into tomorrow and giving him a real chance of securing his third Badminton win. “She’s a great mare, how lucky am I to have her in my swansong era?” William said of the 17hh bay mare. “Sometimes she really makes me feel like I can ride” he joked, “she’s a cool mare and I’m very proud that she did the job, I’m just so chuffed and if she knocks down a few show jumps tomorrow so what, she nailed it out there today and that’s all that matters.”
Sadly the wheels fell off for dressage leaders Ros Canter and Izilot DHI at the Mars Badminton Lake, which kyboshed Ros’s chance of back to back victories, but she was stoic in her review of their performance, “I’m very philosophical and positive about the whole thing, it was always going to be a question mark about how Isaac was going to cope with today and he didn’t quite cope with it, he went pretty spooky at the lake and then that tends to set the tone, once he’s lost it, suddenly lots of things that aren’t normally spooky become scary.” But the combination live to fight another day and the 11-year-old gelding will have learned a lot from his outing today.
Tim Price and his long-time 5 star campaigner, Vitali ate up Eric Winter’s testing course to post their 6th clear round in a row at 5 star level – an absolutely incredible statistic! “He’s a proper cross country horse, it’s so nice with these ones that have been round a few five stars, they just keep getting better and recognise themselves and just keep giving, and that’s what he did. He keeps thinking, giving me the ear when it’s important and he’s just a thrill to ride. It’s just been a good day of quietly waiting [until our time to compete].”
The 14-year-old gelding couldn’t quite make the time over the slightly holding ground and the pair add 4 time penalties to sit on a score of 31.7 to become overnight leaders. But the sensitive Holsteiner is prone to having a couple of fences down, so if William and Lucy can put a clear in before him in the arena tomorrow, the pressure will certainly be on for the 2024 title.