“PEOPLE say it’s fulfilling a dream, but I don’t know if I even dreamt I could do it.” These were the words of Britain’s Ros Canter following her first five-star win at the Badminton Horse Trials on Monday.

The diminutive Canter, who became just the fifth person to become world champion and win Badminton, finished with two horses inside the top 10 and won with the widest winning margin in recent history.

Riding the 11-year-old British-bred gelding Lordships Graffalo, who finished second at the event last year and just missed out on an individual bronze medal at the 2022 World Championships on a equal finishing score, Canter lead from pillar to post.

In torrential rain, which was the theme of the weekend, Canter took over the dressage lead when scoring 22.1 and was brilliant and measured around Sunday’s cross-country where the underfoot conditions were heavy, to complete in the second fastest time of the day, adding 11.6 time penalties to hold the overnight lead. When it came to her show jumping round on Monday, she was last into the arena, she already had four fences in hand, not that she needed them.

A solid show jumper, ‘Walter’ was foot-perfect in the worst of the ground conditions to add just 1.6 of a penalty for time, completing on 35.3, some 15 points ahead of her compatriot Oliver Townend and the Irish Sport Horse Ballaghmor Class (Courage), bred by the late Noel Hickey, on 50.3.

Completing the podium in an exciting day for Irish eventing was Austin O’Connor with the Kate Jarvey-bred Colorado Blue (Jaguar Mail x Rock King) on 51.9.

O’Connor, who was fourth on his debut in 1999 with Simply Rhett and eighth last year with Colorado Blue, was the first Irish rider on the podium for 40 years following legendary racehorse trainer Jessica Harrington’s third place finish in 1983 with Amoy.

Nerves of steel

“It will take a while to sink in,” Canter said immediately afterwards, looking calm and collected as she normally does. “I felt very un-calm and un-cool, but Lordships Graffalo jumped really well outside so that gave me confidence and I knew I could take my time. I suppose I felt my calmest when I got into the arena and I had a job to do. It was quite a long wait today, I was trying to not to think about what could go wrong.

“I kept waking up last night dreaming of winning and I was like ‘stop it, please stop it!’ I am quite good normally at keeping myself in my box and not thinking about the results and it started to get really hard the closer we got so I am l just relieved.”

The brilliant bay gelding by Gradenstolz, who was bred by the Lordships Stud and owned by Michele Saul, has been with Ros since a three-year-old. “The moment I sat on him as a three-year-old I loved him. I didn’t know how special he would be but I just loved riding him, I always have. He’s the horse I love getting on every day. He is full of character, he has got it in abundance; he hasn’t always been easy to do things with but we can see the funny side now because he’s so great,” Canter commented, adding: “He is the ultimate event horse. We all love him to pieces.”

The winner got emotional when talking about her support team, daughter Ziggy who was seen by her side many times during the weekend, and especially her trainer Caroline Moore. “It brings a tear to my eye when I think about Caroline Moore and what she’s done for me over the years. I thought about it just before I went in, I thought do it for them… She is completely selfless, puts so much into me, so I was just delighted I could do it for them.”

DRESSAGE

It was a Badminton Horse Trials for the books as it coincided with the coronation of King Charles III on Saturday, meaning a change of schedule. The dressage started a day later than normal, on Friday, and continued on Saturday with a break for the large crowds to watch the crowning of the monarch.

Rain fell all week and while it was predominately dry for Friday’s dressage, Saturday was a deluge and made for tough conditions in the main arena, and meant the footing was extremely heavy for the following day’s huge cross-country test.

Oliver Townend took the early dressage lead on Friday morning with the 15-year-old Irish Sport Horse Swallow Springs (Chill Out x Cult Hero), bred by Maria Keating. Britain’s Kitty King then took over the lead on Saturday morning with one of the pre-event favourites Vendredi Biats when scoring a 22.3, before Canter wowed the judges to just sneak into the lead on 22.1.

Gemma Stevens (Jalapeno) ended the dressage phase in fourth ahead of Tokyo Olympic silver medallists Tom McEwen and Toledo de Kerser in fifth.

On the Irish front, both Austin O’Connor and Susie Berry (Ringwood LB) – the only two Irish starters – were in equal 34th place on a score of 31.9.

CROSS-COUNTRY

More than any recent year, the cross-country conditions were tough going at Badminton and a number of alterations were on made to Eric Winter’s big beefy track on Saturday afternoon due to the heavy rainfall.

There was drama from the outset on a sold out day when the sun shone but it had little influence on the sticky ground. Among six to withdraw before taking it on was the defending champion Laura Collett with Decapo who was lying seventh overnight, and Tim Price with his second mount Coup de Coeur Dudevin who was ninth.

There were 17 eliminations over the influential track, and 11 retirements. There were six horse falls, and nine rider falls. Early to go, third-placed Oliver Townend was eliminated when Swallow Springs was pulled up by the ground jury at fence 24. Despite starting well, the horse appeared weary as the course went on and straddled fence 19b, breaking a frangible pin, before scrambling at the corner in the lake. The pair were eventually pulled up by the ground jury before fence 25.

Sadly, the 13-year-old Irish Sport Horse WSF Carthago (Cobra x Viking), the mount of Britain’s Fiona Kashel, sustained a life-ending injury on track. Kashel fell from the gelding at fence 26. A statement said: “WSF Carthago was treated in the veterinary clinic at Badminton and subsequently hospitalised. The extent of injury found in surgery meant successful repair was not possible and our commiserations go to the whole team.”

Machine

A total of 30 combinations completed the cross-country, 25 of those without any jumping penalties but none were able to get inside the time. Closest to the optimum time with the fastest time of the day was Austin O’Connor with the cross-country machine Colorado Blue. They rocked up to the top of the leaderboard when coming home with just 10.8 time penalties to add.

“He’s an incredible horse, I’ve said it for years he’s probably one of the best cross-country horses in the world and it’s a privilege to ride a horse like him. I started out today thinking what will be will be, if he wasn’t travelling there’ll be another day, but he relished the conditions, he travelled, he jumped and I’m just the luckiest rider in the world to have a horse like him,” said O’Connor.

“It goes without saying, it’s dimensionally very big out there, I think it’s bigger than last year and that takes a lot of effort out of this ground. My feeling was that if anything was going to go well on it my horse would, and he did!”

He stayed at the top of the leaderboard until dressage leader Ros Canter was also fast – just adding 11.6 time penalties to stay in the lead. O’Connor finished the day in second place, rising 32 places after dressage. The first two were significantly faster than the rest of the field.

Rising three places to third was Oliver Townend with Ballaghmor Class who picked up 21.2 for time; New Zealand’s Tim Price rose from 11th to fourth with Vitali, while Tom McEwen was conservative when adding 30.8 for time but held on to fifth place with Toledo de Kerser.

“He had to dig deeper today than ever before, but I think he had a nice day out,” Canter commented. “I had the benefit of going round on my first horse [Pencos Crown Jewel, seventh – she was the only rider to get two horses round] so I knew where there was time to be saved.”

Townend was proud of Ballaghmor Class’ effort, his ninth clear at five-star, saying: “I’ve had him since he was four - he’s now 16 - and he definitely makes life more exciting for all of us. We’re proud to be associated with him. He’s a very special horse.”

SHOW JUMPING

One the final day, all 30 that completed the cross-country were passed fit at the final vet check and from that 30, just four were clear over the show jumps and two of those without adding any time penalties.

The final top 10 of show jumping, rightly broadcast to the world on BBC, was exciting to the finish. The first of the classy clears came from Britain’s Tom Jackson with the Irish Sport Horse Capels Hollow Drift (Shannondale Sarco Dt Ghyvan x Lucky Gift), bred by Jeanette Glynn. Burghley runner-up finishers in 2022, the grey gelding gave the coloured poles air and the clear saw him jump up five places to finish fifth.

McEwen jumped the next clear with the statistical best jumper in the field, the Diamant de Semilly-sired Toledo. They too were inside the time to move up one place to fourth which may have left Tom rueing not pushing a bit harder across the country the previous day.

Down to the final three and it started to get tense, Townend had a fence in hand over McEwen and he used it early at fence three but the pair kept their composure to come home on a final score of 50.3. From nine starts at five-star, the incredible Ballaghmor Class has never finished lower than fifth in a five-star event, winning two of them - Burghley and Kentucky, plus an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo.

When O’Connor entered the ring, he had two fences in hand and looked all but sure to hold his place with the excellent jumping Colorado Blue. Despite a slight rattle at the first fence, they were foot-perfect all the way to the final line when both elements of the penultimate double fell; they also picked up 1.2 time penalties to complete on 51.9 and slip into third behind Townend.

There was little doubt in anyone’s mind where the victory would go anyway but toward Ros Canter when she entered the ring with four fences in hand and the 2018 world champion duly delivered, adding just 1.6 time penalties, to win her first five-star. They completed with a winning margin of 15 points on a final score of 35.3, the largest winning margin since the days of eventing’s traditional long format.

QUOTES

“It’s a very big achievement. Given the nature of the testing conditions, with the soft ground, it makes it that much better and hopefully it bodes well for us as we continue to prepare for the Olympics in Paris next year.”

– Dag Albert, Ireland’s acting eventing team manager, on Austin O’Connor’s result

“He’s unreal. He’s had too many second places – blame the jockey – but it’s a huge relief that he’s had yet another good result.” – Oliver Townend on Ballaghmor Class

“I had a real hunger to get here. It definitely feels like a long-held ambition fulfilled. It’s definitely the toughest track I’ve done, but he’s an amazing horse and was impressive.” - Aistis Vitkauskas is the first Lithuanian rider to complete Badminton, finishing 26th with Commander VG.

“I have to take my hat off to the officials and the course designer I think it’s a very fair test, they built a true 5* test everywhere but they were right with the changes they made, and they gave us every chance of getting round.” - Austin O’Connor after cross-country.

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