It’s rare that Oliver Townend (GBR) is lost for words, but the ever-ebullient Yorkshireman had tears in his eyes as he completed one of Eventing’s rarest doubles, show jumping clear on Carousel Quest to win The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials (GBR) and extend his lead in the HSBC FEI Classics™ to 12 points over William Fox-Pitt (GBR) with just Les Etoiles de Pau CCI**** (FRA) to go.
Townend, 26, won the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials on Flint Curtis in May and is only the sixth rider in history to complete the double within 12 months, following Anneli Drummond Hay (GBR), Lucinda Green (GBR), Ginny Elliot (GBR), Pippa Funnell (GBR) and Lucinda Fredericks (AUS).
“I’m still celebrating from Badminton,” said Townend. “It hasn’t sunk in yet, but I’ve got plenty of useful four-star horses and am really looking forward to consolidating for the future.”
Polly Stockton (GBR), 6th after Cross-Country, was the only other rider in the top echelons to jump clear, which elevated her to 2nd place on the Irish-bred Westwood Poser, and the mistakes of Sam Griffiths (AUS) eventual 3rd on Happy Times, Phillips Dutton (USA) 4th on Truluck and Clayton Fredericks (AUS), 5th on Poilu, and Caroline Powell (NZL), 8th on Lenamore, gave Townend a two-rail breathing space, which he didn’t need.
HSBC FEI Classics™ Training Bursary
Kai Rüder (GER), 10th on the stallion Leprince des Bois, who had the best first-time 4-star completion and wins the HSBC FEI Classics™ Training Bursary towards training with an accredited trainer.
Red Card
Harry Meade (GBR) was awarded a red card and disqualified from the competition for his riding of Dunauger No. 14, who fell at fence 19. Meade was not allowed to ride his second horse, Midnight Dazzler. The Ground Jury, in consultation with the Appeal Committee, awarded the red card under Art 520 of the 2009 Rules of Eventing: “Abuse of Horse and Dangerous Riding”, namely ‘riding an exhausted horse’ and ‘excessive pressing of a tired horse’.
Paul Donovan (IRL) was given an FEI yellow warning card for failing to stop after incurring 3 refusals on Sportsfield Sandyman.
COMPETITION STATISTICS
– 49 horses completed
– 3 withdrawn, including Anna Warnecke’s Twinkle Bee (GER), lying 8th
– 11 Jumping clears (3 with time faults)
– No rider finished on their dressage score
QUOTES
Oliver Townend, 1st: “I was nervous in the morning, but by the time I went into the arena, I wasn’t really feeling anything at all. I was riding a class horse that I knew if I placed him right he wouldn’t boot out four fences, and that’s a nice feeling.”
Sam Griffiths, 3rd: “I’m really thrilled. To back up Badminton with this means it’s no fluke and I’m now excited for the future. I’ll be sitting down with the Australian selectors soon to talk about next year.”
ABOUT THE WINNER
Oliver Townend, 26, was brought up in Yorkshire, and trained with Paul Donovan (IRL), Kenneth Clawson (GBR) and even rode out racehorses for the Irish trainer Mouse Morris. He recently bought a farm near Ellesmere in Shropshire. He first rode for Britain at the 2005 FEI European Championships on Topping and in 2006 gained the ride on Flint Curtis, finishing 3rd at Badminton and 11th individually at the FEI World Equestrian Games in Aachen (GER). He was 8th at the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event on Carousel Quest and won Badminton on Flint Curtis this year. He was a member of Britain’s gold medal team at the 2007 FEI European Championships and will be in the team on Flint Curtis at the HSBC FEI European Championship at Fontainebleau (FRA) this month.
RESULTS
1 Oliver Townend/Carousel Quest (GBR) 39.8 + 3.2 + 0 = 43.0
2 Polly Stockton/Westwood Poser (GBR) 48.5 + 3.2 + 0 = 51.7
3 Sam Griffiths/Happy times (AUS) 48.3 + 0 + 4 = 52.3
4 Phillip Dutton/Truluck (USA) 45.3 + 5.2 + 0/4 = 54.5
5 Clayton Fredericks/Poilu (AUS) 51.7 + 0 + 4 = 55.7
6 Paul Tapner/Inonothing (AUS) 51.5 + 6.8 + 0 = 58.3
7 William Fox-Pitt/Seacookie (GBR) 47.5 + 6.8 + 4 = 58.3
8 Caroline Powell/Lenamore (NZL) 45.2 + 5.2 + 8 = 58.4
9 Rosie Thomas/Barry’s Best (GBR) 59.7 + 0 + 4 = 63.7
10 Kai Ruder/Leprince des Bois (GER) 46.7 + 13.6 + 4 = 64.3
Full results on www.burghley-horse.co.uk
2009 HSBC FEI CLASSICS™ Standings (after 4 of 5 events):
1 Oliver Townend (GBR) 33 points
2 William Fox-Pitt (GBR) 21
3 Sam Griffiths (AUS) 20
4 Lucinda Fredericks (AUS) 15
5 Michael Jung (GER) 15
6 Bettina Hoy (GER) 12
7 Andreas Dibowski (GER) 12
8 Phillip Dutton (USA) 12
9 Polly Stockton (GBR) 12
10 Lucy Wiegersma (GBR) 11
11 Bruce Davidson Jnr (USA) 10
12 Dirk Schrade (GER) 10
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