Bring on the Great: a showcase of the world’s best at Badminton

Bring on the Great: a showcase of the world’s best at Badminton

If you want to see the finest display of eventing horses and riders on the planet, this year’s Mitsubishi Motors Badminton entry list is nothing short of epic. We are thrilled to see that the field will be well represented by the Horse Scout family. Leading professionals who we support and they support us and use our services.

Let’s start with Horse Scout advocate Oliver Townend. Last year saw Oliver back on top form, finishing at the top of the British Eventing rider rankings for a fourth year. He helped the British team regain the gold medal at the European Championships and won Burghley on Ballaghmor Class, who he brings to the line up here. The pair will be even more established at Four Star Level and will be coming forwards with plenty of confidence after a good start to the season. Oliver has three other horses to choose from. He is flying the flag for the Cooley prefix with Cooley Master Class and Cooley SRS, his ride at the European Championships last year. The 35 year old from Ellesmere also has an entry with MHS King Joules, the tricky but talented customer previously campaigned by Mary King and Andrew Nicholson.

One of our Irish advocates Joseph Murphy, is entered on his experienced campaigner Sportsfield Othello. Then we have our Horse Scout power couple Kathryn Robinson and Giovanni Ugolotti, who will also be offering two lucky winners, an exclusive course walk around Badminton’s hallowed turf. A chance to walk the riders line around a course like this, is one not to be missed.

We are proud to include Mark Todd as one of our Horse Scout partners. The legendary rider is rarely out of the top ten at the big events, even at the grand old age of 62. He was won the Badminton title four times now and finished 4th last year.

Plus we will be catching up with another great advocate of ours, Emily King during the course of the event. She is not competing this year but present in her role as ambassador of the Mitsubishi Motors Cup.

Beyond our advocates, it is a world class field with some of the best event rider- horse combinations in the history of the sport. Michael Jung will delight us with the marvelous La Biosthetique- Sam FBW (aka Sam). The double Olympic Champion has been 2nd twice and won in 2016 with this great horse. To add to the drama and excitement, Andrew Nicholson and Nereo, the winners of The Mitsubishi Motors Badminton 2017 is on the list and with more completions than any other rider, Nicholson must be feeling confident.

Last year Team GBR regained the gold medal at the European Championships in Strzegom, Poland after a long absence from the top of the podium. This has no doubt given confidence ahead of the FEI World Equestrian Games which takes place in Tryon in September. There will be a number of riders from all nations looking to prove a point early this season and Badminton is perfectly timed event to do this. A good run around one of Eric Winter’s challenging tracks will always help to impress the selectors.

Four of the five Team GBR squad members are on the Badminton entries list. Piggy French is bringing the talented mare, Vanir Kamira with whom she was runner up at Burghley. Whilst Tina Cook is hoping to ride Billy the Red, with whom she finished 4th in Strzegom, Rosalind Canter must surely be another leading contender for a top three with the evergreen, Allstar B.

There are eight winners in the Badminton field and perhaps surprisingly William Fox-Pitt and Pippa Funnell are on the waiting list. But with a smaller total entry, they are likely to get the opportunity to lay down their challenge.

Gates open at Badminton on Wednesday 2nd May, when more than 500 shops will be open for business and the amateurs championship, The Mitsubishi Motors Cup takes place. The CCI 4 * continues from Thursday to Sunday. Advance tickets have been selling in record numbers but there is still some availability on the Badminton website

www.badminton-horse.co.uk