1. 2016 – Michael Jung and La Biosthetique Sam win the Rolex Grand Slam on the lowest finishing score in the history of the event.

When Michael Jung and La Biosthetique Sam arrived at Badminton in 2016, they were in an unusual position - sure to be among the favourites for the competition as the reigning Burghley winner, but not quite considered as the horse we now recognise as likely the best in the modern era of the sport.

They hadn’t been at Badminton since 2013 when the front rail of the final oxer cost them victory. Fischerrocana FST was winning her Kentucky titles and the European champion, Fischertakinou, was (at this point) the number one choice for the upcoming Olympic Games. Sam was loved but not quite in the same way at this point as he would later be.

Unusually for this combination, they led the dressage on a 34.4 (22.9 current scoring). Of the 75 starters on Saturday, 33 (44%) jumped clear (and 11 of those were inside the time). When they jumped clear on the Sunday, it sealed the Rolex Grand Slam for Jung, becoming only the second person in history to win it.

He won by the event by nine marks, the widest winning margin of the decade. The 22.9 finish remains the lowest ever finishing score ever achieved at the venue.

2. 2011 – Sir Mark Todd wins again, 31 years after the first win.

Of all of the emotional finishes we have seen this decade, this remains the one which many people are drawn to first. It was a full 31 years since Mark had won his first Badminton with Southern Comfort.

Mark Todd winning his first Badminton title in 1980 riding Southern Comfort \ Badminton Horse Trials

NZB Land Vision was competing in his first CCI5* event. Todd’s fourth Badminton title, at the age of 55, made him the oldest ever winner of the event and the records didn’t stop there. This win took him to 11 CCI5* wins, moving him past his friend Ginny Elliot. It was the most top level wins ever achieved by an event rider. Within a couple of seasons, William Fox-Pitt would pass them both on this list.

Mark Todd after winning Badminton in 2011, 31 years after his first win at the venue \ Kit Houghton Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials

3. 2014 - ‘That’ cross-country

When we think back to the big Saturday afternoons Badminton has given us this decade, most people remember where they were for cross-country day 2014. The rain (and the wind) were as bad as any one could remember. Some 78 combinations went out to take on the course and only 35 (45%) managed to get to the end. To put that number in context, the next lowest completion rate of the decade was 60% in 2017.

Less than one in three managed to jump clear on the day and the fastest time of the day was Ringwood Sky Boy and Tim Price (29 seconds over the time). There was drama when William Fox-Pitt and Park Lane Hawk who looked to be cruising, fell three from home. Sam Griffiths and the Paula Cullen-bred Irish Sport Horse Paulank Brockagh (Touchdown x Triggerero XX) went on to win the event, coming from 25th after dressage - the biggest rise to win a CCI5* in modern eventing. They added 17.6 time across the country and knocked a rail before taking the win.

Sam Griffiths and the Irish Sport Horse Paulank Brockagh on their way to winning Badminton in 2014

4. 2018 – Jonelle Price gives us a female win at last

In 1954, Margaret Hough and Bambi became the first female winners of the event and we had some female domination over different periods. Sheila Wilcox (’57, ’58 and ’59) is the only person to win three consecutive titles. Lucinda Green won it six times on six different horses.

Between 2000 and 2007, Badminton was won by Mary King (’00), Pippa Funnell (’02, ’03, ‘05) and Lucinda Fredericks (’07) but from there followed nine male victories (and one cancellation) until Jonelle Price and Classic Moet took the title in 2018.

While her speed on cross-country day proved the catalyst for the victory, (the Eric Winter Badminton tracks were proving notoriously difficult to make the time), it was the clear show jumping round that EquiRatings didn’t expect. She had knocked a least one rail in each of her previous 10 internationals. As she jumped the last clear, she ended the longest run of all male victories in the history of the event.

Jonelle Price became the first lady winner in some 10 years at the 2018 event aboard Classic Moet

5. 2019 – Oliver Townend breaks a 20-year dressage record

At the top levels of the sport, the first phase record books have been dominated by German riders – Bettina Hoy, Ingrid Klimke and Julia Krajewski in particular. Riders like Oliver Townend were more traditionally associated with cross-country skill. In 2019 however, we saw the range of skill that has taken Oliver Townend to the top of the world rankings. On Thursday morning, we saw the best ever dressage score recorded at the venue in the first phase when Oliver Townend and Irish Sport Horse Cillnabradden Evo (S.Creevagh Ferro x King Henry, bred by Tom Holden) delivered a 19.7 test - the first ever sub-20 score, to take the record which had stood for 19 years (Andrew Hoy and Darien Powers in 2000 (20.5)). By Friday afternoon, he would have a second test in the top three ever seen at the venue.

Oliver Townend and Cillnabradden Evo (ISH) \ Kit Houghton

There were other records last year too. On her 25th run at the top level of the sport, Piggy French (now March) produced her best ever finishing score on another Irish Sport Horse Vanir Kamira (Camiro de Haar Z x Dixi, bred by Kathryn Jackson) to take the title by a single second. At the first Badminton Horse Trials in 1949, John Shedden and Golden Willow became the first ever British winners of a CCI5* event. In 2019, on the 70th anniversary of Badminton Horse Trials, Piggy French made it 100 top level wins for British riders. New Zealand sit in second on 36 wins.

EquiRatings is a sports data company for equestrian sports. The company won a number of local and national awards in that first year and has grown to a team of eight, with services growing from eventing and into the other disciplines.