A cool and misty start to the day when cross country started at 11am this morning and it was Harry Meade who kicked proceedings off with the first of his three rides and all eyes were on him as he approached the straight route at the Leaf Pit which had been the subject of much discussion amongst the riders. Harry and Superstition breezed through the straight route which pretty much set the tone for the rest of the day….hats off to Derek di Grazia as he clearly has a better idea of how horses read fences than the rest of us!
Unusually for Tim with two rides at a 5 star he actually had plenty of time to watch a few as he originally had three entries here so Viscount Viktor was in the middle of the field starting point. It had caused plenty of scattered problems with dressage leader Izalot DHI not getting any further than the out of the coffin at 5C but he and Viktor jumped the early part of the track in a beautiful rhythm and looked to be having a very nice introduction to Viktor’s first Burghley.
Viktor came home looking much the same but there was a section in the middle where he seemed to be channelling his inner Ringwood Sky Boy (Ozzie). I don’t mean Ozzie in his latter years but in his early ones…..he flattened the pinned vertical at the C element at the Maltings and then misread the second of the double of corners for a 20 (although to be fair to Viktor he was one of many, including allot more experienced horses, to not get the four strides to the acute angle of the second corner). He then pretty much scrambled over the last house at the bottom of the slope at the Dairy Mound and took the white flag between his legs and did well to stand up before deciding that was really scary and bolting down the track like Bango (Uno) did at Badminton one year. Tim survived this moment in time with his fingers on the buckle end of the reins and his balance considerably closer to the back of Viktor than the front before Viktor took a breath, went back into Viktor mode and finished the track looking pure class.
As Tim commented, Viktor was at Burghley to learn his trade and he made the most of the opportunity and he said it was a privilege to have a horse as classy and scopey as Viktor that enabled you to use Burghley as a schooling round for the future. Despite a 20, a flag and a pin Viktor still sits in 38th out of the 66th starters!
Jonelle and Grape looked on dazzling form until they became, bizarrely, the only victim all day of the first of the brush arrowheads after the big drop off at the Leaf Pit. Jonelle didn’t quite get to the take off distance she would have liked and Grape rather sprawled through it, leaving her hind legs to drag through the very stiff brush which tipped Jonelle forwards and ultimately off. Grape trotted off purposefully and Jonelle sat on the ground looking incredulous as she, nor us, could quite believe that had happened. It’s the same as in any elite sport…..when the chips are down and things are not going your way then your confidence gets knocked and things just seem to keep going wrong. It was a tough day for Jonelle but she was still back at the start box to see Tim off as the last ride of the day with Vitali.
Vitali is a little black horse with a huge heart and he and Tim were faultless around the track. Tim used all of his knowledge gained in the day to full advantage, he adopted the Tom McEwen/Jesse Campbell route to the Leaf Pit Drop which involved coming off the right rein, not the left, he rode the problematic double of corners on the curving 5 strides and not the straight 4 and Vitali ate up all the distances and questions and looked a million dollars. Lat year at Burghley he struggled with fitness having missed the Gatcombe Open when it cancelled but this year Tim had Hartpury Open under his belt and today was the first time it seemed worth galloping around and winning the paltry £400! Tim came home with just 3.2 time to sit in second behind Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo who had skipped around inside the time ( so Tim couldn’t have overtaken them anyway) to make Burghley look like their local gymkhana.
Much has been said about Vitali’s third day showjumping record but as Jonelle always says, Burghley is where dreams are made and so lets hope there is a dream ending for at least one of Team Price tomorrow.
And moment of the day went to Kiwi Jesse Campbell who crossed the finish line on Cooley Lafitte (Henry) with a clear round and blew a kiss skywards to his late wife Georgie. If that doesn’t put the 20’s and dropped pins and walk homes of the day into perspective then nothing does and it was actually a really good day for the sport with just one horse fall ( a very ambitious approach to the Lower Trout Hatchery big drop into the water by a French rider) which left the horse totally fine apart from the water in his ears which he was livid about. Maybe Georgie was in charge today upstairs one thinks.
