Townend one-two at the end of the 2019 Badminton dressage
Day two of the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials produced more incredible scores, as British riders continue to shine with Great Britain’s Oliver Townend sitting in first and second place.
From the 40 combinations that completed their dressage today, Oliver was the only rider able to challenge his own leading dressage score of 19.7, as he slotted into second place on Karyn Shuter, Angela Hislop and Val Ryan’s Ballaghmor Class.
The 2017 Burghley CCI5*-L champion closes the gap on Oliver’s other ride, Sally-Anne Egginton’s Cillnabradden Evo, and their record-breaking dressage score, with another impressive score of 21.1 penalties.
On his second ride, Oliver said; “These situations are what I dream of every day of my life. I’m a very, very big dreamer and these situations are created in my head a long way out. His performance, I was very happy with, there was one mistake coming into the last flying change but this is what I dream of and so far the dream is coming true. If I went back in now I could knock another three marks off, it’s just a confidence thing, there is more in there but we’re at Badminton and the biggest thing is to do three clear rounds.”
Dropping just one place at the conclusion of the dressage, Tom McEwen and Frank and Jane Inns, Alison McEwen and Fred and Penny Barker’s Toledo de Kerser, who now hold third place with their score of 24.7 penalties, and Piggy French also drops one place to fourth on 26.0 with Trevor Dickens’ Vanir Kamira.
Further success for British riders today came in the form of Pippa Funnell and CCI5*-L first timer, Nicholas and Barbara Walkinshaw’s 10 year old Billy Walk On, with their score of 26.5 putting them in fifth place. Going earlier in the day, Laura Collett and the popular Mr Bass, owned by Keith Scott, Nick How and Laura, put in a polished performance for the gelding’s first time at Badminton, scoring 27.6 penalties and head into tomorrow’s cross country in eighth place.
Also competing in the dressage today and landing just outside of the top ten, GB’s Kristina Cook and Elizabeth Murdoch’s Billy the Red finish in equal 11th place, along with Australia’s Christopher Burton and Cooley Lands, on a score of 28.1.
Attention now turns to tomorrow’s cross country which gets underway at 11.30am. Full details on how to watch can be found HERE, along with the cross country start list HERE.
Badminton 2019 dressage top ten
1 - OLIVER TOWNEND and CILLNABRADDEN EVO / 19.7
2 - OLIVER TOWNEND and BALLAGHMOR CLASS / 21.1
3 - TOM MCEWEN and TOLEDO DE KERSER / 24.7
4 - PIGGY FRENCH and VANIR KAMIRA / 26.0
5 - PIPPA FUNNELL and BILLY WALK ON / 26.5
6 - KITTY KING and VENDREDI BIATS / 27.2
7 - MILLIE DUMAS and ARTISTIEK / 27.3
8 - LAURA COLLETT and MR BASS / 27.6
9 - CHRISTOPHER BURTON and GRAF LIBERTY / 27.7
10 ANDREW NICHOLSON and SWALLOW SPRINGS / 27.8