Jonelle Price and Classic Moet Make it a Year to Remember at Badminton

 Jonelle Price and Classic Moet Make it a Year to Remember at the 2018 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials

Jonelle Price (NZL) and Classic Moet this afternoon have been announced the winners of the 2018 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials.

Talking about her first 4 star win, Jonelle said “Maybe it hasn’t quite sunk in, I’m so excited for Classic Moet and her owner Tricia Rickards.” she continued “I was beginning to wonder if it was going to happen and it has, and Badminton is obviously one of the biggest so yes, it’s pretty special.”

Badminton Horse Trials offers the horse and rider a type of exhilaration that can be likened to that of the Grand National, one of horse racing’s most iconic events. As with the cross country phase of the three-day 5 star event, the horses too jump over around 30 fences however betting on the Grand National via bet-grand-national.co.uk, in comparison to Badminton Horse Trials offers different benefits.

Jonelle is the first female rider to win the three day The Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials event since 2007, when Lucinda Fredericks took the title riding Headley Britannia.

After the dressage Price and the dark bay mare were a little further down the leaderboard than you would expect a potential winner to be,  in 22nd position. It was the very fast and clear cross-country round they produced the following day, that gave a glimpse of what lay ahead.

“She [Classic Moet] is an incredible horse and I’m sure I’ll never have another one like her.”

Jonelle Price

Jonelle later expressed her initial thoughts on the cross country, the second phase of the British Eventing event, during Saturday evening’s #ChatZoneMMBHT “When I first walked the course I thought it looked a little smaller than the one last year, and I was worried how the ground was drying. You can’t take it for granted what horse you’re sitting on. I was worried I was a little bit rusty and maybe she might be too as we’ve only had one run this season.”

Great Britain’s Oliver Townend  was surprised to have two horses in the top five, Ballaghmoor Class and Cooley SRS, moving into the final day’s showjumping. Speaking the evening before during the end of day’s #ChatZoneMMBHT, he commented on how difficult it can be following a day’s cross country to produce a clear showjumping round the day after “It’s like trying to jump a showjumping round after you’ve jumped around the Grand National, and I think if you watched the Grand National horses jump showjumps, you’d see a lot of fences down. It’s a tough job.”

On the final day Townend jumped a clear first round on Cooley SRS, who he was fifth with overnight. The clear round meant no penalties were added; a top placing was clearly in sight. Unfortunately, Ballaghmoor Class the horse he’d held second on, had a total of four fences down resulting in a considerable drop down the leaderboard. However, Towened still clinched second on Cooley SRS.

Another exceptional talent riding at this year’s Badminton Horse Trials was British rider, Rosalind Canter. Ros, as she is known at home, had held her third position from the dressage phase of the event through to the final day. Keeping the pressure on some of the most experienced of event riders, Rosalind and Allstar B, only lowered one fence during the showjumping round scooping a well deserved third place at this year’s event.

Throughout the event, Event Rider Masters trophy winner Gemma Tattersall, enjoyed a steady rise up the leaderboard riding Artic Soul. The pair produced a lower dressage scoring than anticipated, resulting in a joint 35th placing. However, it was the strong cross country ride followed by a clear showjumping round that bumped Gemma and ‘Archie’ into a respectable fourth.

From Gloucester to Windsor, next up this month is the CHI Royal Windsor Horse Show. Our journalist Amy Powell will be reporting back from the event. Keep an eye out for social media and website updates throughout the week.

With special thanks to Mike Bain for the images.