September 7, 2024 
Cross country at the Defender Burghley Horse Trials (DBHT) lived up to its reputation as one of the biggest and most demanding courses in the world.
Several of the event’s headliners failed to complete the course.
Pathfinder, Harry Meade had an incredibly smooth trip on the first of his three rides, Superstition, taking all the direct routes and making an extremely complex course look very rideable. It would have given many of 5* riders confidence if they had walked away after watching his round.
But before Meade had even completed the course two of the best riders in the world had already fallen foul of Derek Di Grazia’s fascinating course.
Overnight leaders Ros Canter and Izilot DHI suffered an early run out in the Defender Valley, at Fence 5, and retired, while Pippa Funnell and MCS Maverick suffered the same fate at Rolex Corner.
World no. 4 Oliver Townend, fifth after dressage on Cooley Rosalent, also fell at the Rolex Corner, as did Zara Phillips. The same fence also caused refusals for Tim Price and Viscount Viktor, Mia Farley on Phelps, Andrew Heffernan and Harthill Phantom and Emma Hyslop-Webb and Jeweetwel.
Jonelle Price got as far as the Leaf Pit, falling at one of the huge brush arrowheads that all of the riders were all so concerned about after walking the course.
French rider Gireg Le Coz, seventh after dressage, suffered the first soaking of the day, falling in the second part of the Trout Hatchery, to be followed in close succession by Ireland’s Padraig McCarthy and Lady Ophelia. Both horses walked away from the course, sound but extremely wet!
Only four horses came home within the optimum time and Meade managed to do so on both of his other rides—he’s jumped from 11th into third overnight on Annaghmore Valoner and from 24th to fifth on Cavalier Crystal.
“It was a brilliant track,” said a delighted Meade. “It asked every type of question and what I loved about this course is that there were questions that you really didn’t know how they would ride, like the Leaf Pit, but it was really clear to the horses. Those big brushes, although very difficult and very big, are obvious to the horses.”
In the final half hour of the day overnight leader Canter produced a clear within the time on Lordships Graffalo to maintain her pole position.
“It didn’t feel as easy as everybody says it looked—but that’s Burghley for you. It’s the first time I’ve got to the end of Burghley with a competitive time and I learnt a lot today,” said Canter.
“You just can’t fault [Lordships Graffalo]. He is an absolute athlete and he just adores the cross country. It’s as if he has walked the course before—he reads it on the hoof.”
And as for her ride on Izilot DHI….
“Izilot did what Izilot does—he is either fantastic or it generally goes wrong pretty quickly, which is what happened today!”
Price, the final rider on the course, had a dream of a ride on Vitali to climbed into second overnight. It’s a position he’s been in many times before with Vitali, only to topple down the placings in the show jumping.
Still, Price remains optimistic.
“He is a great, athletic jumping horse and he jumped better than he has ever jumped before. We’ve had six months to recover from disappointments of times gone by, to rebuild and reformat what we can do better. I think he is mentally in a better place and tomorrow is going to be a good day to come out and show how he’s progressed!”
DBHT concludes Sunday with the show jumping phase with the top 20 jumping at 2:15 pm local time. Watch on Burghley TV.
