A pole in hand for Laura Collett who retains lead despite Badminton leader board shake-up

Photo © Badminton Horse Trials Limited

Finishing the cross-country on her personal best five-star dressage score of 21.0, Laura Collett heads into the showjumping with a four-point lead overnight 

It wouldn’t be Badminton without a day filled with thrills, spills and drama, and the full capacity sell-out event certainly didn’t disappoint spectators on the ground or at home. But, after over an hour’s worth of stoppage time in total, it was Laura Collett who came out on top of today’s (7 May) cross-country looking ahead to tomorrow’s showjumping competition. This means that she has a fence in hand over second-placed Oliver Townend.

“It’s a little bit of a blur at the moment. [London 52] was just absolutely phenomenal,” said Laura in an interview after her round. “He dug so deep.

“I’ve never ridden a cross-country course like that before and he’s never seen one like that, either – it was relentless. The one let-up fence is maximum height and maximum width,” she continued. “It was definitely not the most stylish round, but he was amazing. He just kept answering every question. He was very brave. When I walked the course, I thought to myself ‘Is he a man or mouse?’ and today he was definitely a man!”

Though now sitting second on a score on 25.7, Oliver Townend’s round with Swallow Springs was one of the more eventful of the morning after being held for around 30 minutes when Nicola Wilson and JL Dublin suffered a fall on course – we’re told that Nicola is stable in hospital, undergoing trauma scans, and the horse is comfortable back in the stables – and, after completing, learned that they’d earlier been eliminated due to a dispute with one of the fences. The elimination was later overturned, allowing the combination to finish the day on their dressage score. With his later ride, the ever-experienced Ballaghmor Class, Oliver finished in third after a near-enough textbook trip across the country saw them finish on their dressage score of 25.9 with seconds to spare.

Going into the cross-country tied with Oliver’s first ride, Piggy March added just one second to her dressage score to finish on 26.1 riding the reigning Badminton champion Vanir Kamira. The 17-year-old mare can be tricky to manage but ‘Tilly’ showed her experience at this level and made the course look overwhelmingly straightforward. The time penalty cost Piggy overnight third place and she’ll head into the showjumping in fifth position, as the previously mentioned Oliver Townend’s Ballaghmor Class and another combination nestled into the 0.4-fault margin this left.

This other combination was none other than Ros Canter – though not with her first ride of the day, Allstar B, who moved up from 12^th overnight into ultimate sixth place going into the showjumping as she steered the experienced gelding to a clear round with just 1.2 time penalties to add. She described the 17-year-old as “professional as always” as he made light work of the course, which, Ros commented, rode “more like a 4*-S”, explaining that the twists and turns on course were demanding but that it “definitely needed riding”.

In fact, it was with Ros’s second ride, Lordships Graffalo ­– with whom Ros was in overnight 10^th place – that she returned home with nothing added. Coming into the cross-country on a dressage of 26.0, this was enough to see her into fourth place.

Arguably one of the biggest upsets of the day came when fourth-to-go and overnight second, Tom McEwen and Toledo de Kerser took a tumble after an enthusiastic approach to fence 24’s Solar Farm bounces. Hours later and with his Badminton first-timer CHF Cooliser – who finished second behind Tim Price and Falco IV at last year’s Pau CCI5*–  Tom finished 40 seconds over the time after a quiet and confidence-giving round, giving viewers a glimpse of what this promising mare’s got to come in the future.

Looking forward, there’s a total of 15.1 penalties between first and tenth place – less than the equivalent of four poles. So, with more than a pole’s margin, Laura Collett comes into the showjumping with a small amount of breathing space, there’s little room for error for three of Britain’s top contenders Oliver Townend, Piggy March and Ros Canter who’ll need to put down flawless performances if they’re to pile on the pressure for their shots at the podium.

The top 10 as it stands…

1. Great Britain’s Laura Collett riding London 52 on 21.0
2. Great Britain’s Oliver Townend and Swallow Springs on 25.7
3. Great Britain’s Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class on 25.9
4. Great Britain’s Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo on 26.0
5. Great Britain’s Piggy March riding Vanir Kamira on 26.1
6. Great Britain’s Ros Canter riding Allstar B on 27.6
7. New Zealand’s Jonelle Price riding Classic Moet on 31.4
8. Great Britain’s Kitty King riding Vendredi Biats on 32.8
9. Great Britain’s William Fox-Pitt riding Little Fire on 33.3
10. Great Britain’s William Fox-Pitt riding Oratorio on 33.4

Where to watch

Keen to get in on tomorrow’s final day of action? A Badminton Horse Trials highlights show, incorporating the live top-10 showjumping rounds, will be shown on BBC2 from 14.30 tomorrow (Sunday 8 May). To watch the preceding rounds, you’ll need to buy an annual subscription from Badminton TV for £19.99.