BRITAIN’s Oliver Townend set a new dressage record at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials on Thursday afternoon aboard the 13-year-old Irish Sport Horse Cillnabradden Evo to lead the field going into today’s cross-country phase at the South Gloucestershire venue. He lies in second place with Ballaghmor Class (ISH), becoming the first rider in history to occupy the top two places after dressage.

Fresh from winning the CCI5* at the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day-Event with Cooley Master Class (ISH) (see pages 105 and 110), Townend and Cillnabradden Evo produced the first ever sub 20 dressage score at Badminton when posting a score of 19.7. Australian Andrew Hoy had previously held the record of 20.5 for 19 years.