All three Price horses breezed through the jog albeit with little Prince Vitali getting first dibs at it as always. Princess Grappa Nera (Grape) requires no such exception to the rule and fair play to Viscount Viktor, neither does he.
Sunshine on their backs makes for happy horses and the jog passed largely without drama apart from both of Ollie Townend’s being sent to the hold box. Balllaghmor Class ( Thomas) was withdrawn but Cooley Roslalent (Rosie) went through. It was sad to see Thomas not go forward to the showjumping for the first time in his career but at 18 years old you cant blame him for feeling his years at the top end.
Viktor jumped in the morning session and in true Viktor style jumped some great fences in the warm up and some not so great. He jumped a good round but did cop three rails for an added 12 penalties but when the stats at the end of the day showed there were only 8 clear rounds in time out of 54 showjumping starters that shows how tough it was! Viktor finished in the top 50% of a five star yet again and he is only 11 years old with Pau, Luhmuhlen, Burghley and Badminton now under his belt. His time to shine will most surely come and Tim most certainly wasn’t disappointed with him.
The guys started packing up the truck in the lunch break and then Grape and Vitali headed up to the main arena for the afternoon session of showjumping. Grape and Jonelle have a great partnership but Grape is the most unconventional horse to warm up for jumping as she makes life so difficult by throwing her head up in the air and not looking at the fence. Having said that, Jonelle’s last ride outside was at a 45 degree angle to a 1m 30 vertical with no ground line and she was probably half a stride too deep and Grape went airborne and never touched it.
They ended up with 8 faults….Jonelle said that Grape’s way of going makes it so tricky to get into a rhythm and without that it is so complex to complete the lines with any confidence. Grape paid the price for a difficult ride down to the double but Jonelle blamed herself for the last as she said in hindsight she should have moved up instead of waiting but hindsight is a wonderful thing…… as we all know. 22nd out of 86 starters is no disgrace and considering Grape was never aiming for Badminton until March she has done herself and her loyal band of owners so proud.
Vitali is a legend at 5 star, he has never finished outside the top 10 at this level and this is his 6th which is so impressive. To think of 6 five star events where he has never walked home XC, never had a jumping fault cross country, never failed the jog and always delivered on the dressage is actually an amazing 5 star record. Wesko (Dash) had his blips, Ringwood Sky Boy ( Ozzie) took a while to get established, Xavier Faer ( Hugo) took some time to cement his amazing run at the level, Ascona M ( Ava) was wild or brilliant in equal measures but Vitali has simply ticked the box every time from Luhmuhlen to Badminton and Burghley.
Today was no exception when he finished 10th. He had the first and the last and one in the middle which sounds bad but it is huge progress as Vitali’s default has been to jump the first half of the track well then descend into disaster. Today he showed that he could make a mistake and deal with it and that will have filled him with confidence as he rarely has a fence at a one day or a 4*Short so there is very little time to practice at the 5 Long!
Ros Canter and the amazing Lordships Graffalo (Walter) won their second Badminton in fine style when Ollie Townend and Rosie had a rail. It was a great one to be fair…happy horses and happy riders in the sunshine, and a special mention to Tayla Mason and Centennial (Chase) who based with Tim and Jonelle for some years before setting up on her own and a fabulous debut at Badminton to take away the Glentrool Trophy for the highest climber after dressage to end up in 19th from dressage position of 69th. Tayla has worked her socks off to get this result and well deserved her hard fought battle to get off the waitlist and do her stuff on the world’s biggest stage.
Funny to think of the next generation coming through when Jonelle posted a photo of her and Mazetto (Eric) on social media that was taken 21 years ago at their Badminton debut. Soon a photo came through from the USA where Eric was sold to in 2007 and here he is, happily grazing in a field aged 31. That is the real stuff legends are made of.
