2010 Badminton winner Paul Tapner will be competing with Kilronan this year
The World, Olympic and European champion Michael Jung has never competed on the hallowed turf of Badminton but that is set to change in May 2013. Can he add the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials trophy to his vast collection of accolades?
The lists of accepted and waitlisted riders have been announced and Michael is taking his top horse La Biosthetique Sam FRW (the horse who jumped out the window of his horse truck according to Lucinda Green’s lovely story) and Leopin FST. Three of his four fellow team members from London 2012 will also be competing; Sandra Auffarth, Ingrid Klimke and Dirk Scrade and the now locally based Bettina Hoy will also be competing on TS Lanfranco.
Chris Burton and Underdiscussion
From Australia Chris Burton is realising a long held dream to compete at Badminton with Jean and Jade Findlay’s Holstein Park Leilani, a horse Chris says is ‘made to conquer Badminton’. This will probably be his swansong on the 17 year old chestnut mare by Landa who may be competed by Jade after this event; Chris’ other horse accepted by Badminton is the Aachen CICO 3* winner Underdiscussion.
The other accepted Australian riders are 2010 Badminton winner Paul Tapner (Kilronan), Sam Griffiths (Happy Times) and Murray Lamperd (Under the Clocks). Horses are accepted on their recent form with 85 making the cut which means there are many riders waitlisted; these include Australians Sam Griffiths (Paulank Brockagh), Lucinda Fredericks (Prada) and Catherine Burrell (Urzan).
William Fox-Pitt's many rides will include his 2011 Burghley winner, Parklane Hawk Photo: Peter Nixon/FEI
The British line-up is, of course, strong and spearheaded by the man who could possibly win the Rolex Grand Slam at this event, William Fox-Pitt. William is listed to ride five horses; Parklane Hawk, Oslo, Lionheart, Cool Mountain and Chilli Morning (nothing like having a few options). The other members of the silver medal winning team at London 2012 will also be competing; Mary King has three horses entered (Fernhill Urco, King’s Temptress and Imperial Cavalier), Zara Phillips (High Kingdom) and Tina Cook (Miner’s Frolic). The only rider to have won the Rolex Grand Slam to date, Pippa Funnell, will also be competing on Mirage d’Elle and Redesigned.
If the British London 2012 team are out in force, so too are the bronze winning Kiwis. The boys (and girls) in black have 13 horses accepted although Jonelle Richards and Flintstar are waitlisted. Andrew Nicholson, who has completed the most Badminton events of anyone but yet to score a win, will be attempting to correct this on one of his three entries; Avebury, Mr Cruise Control and Nereo.
Andrew Nicholson and Avebury will be hot contenders
The Badminton course is always a challenging one and Event Director and Course Designer says that there a few tweaks to be announced in April but that this year’s course will be very similar to the course prepared for 2012, which was never used due to the event cancellation.
Click here to view the full Badminton Horse Trials Rider 2013 acceptance list
Click here to view the full Badminton Horse Trials Rider 2013 waitlist
Other good news from Badminton is that the EHV threat has been lifted. Hugh Thomas says in a statement
"Following confirmation of Equine Herpes Virus in the Beaufort Hunt stables at Badminton, urgent action has been taken to ensure the hygiene and biosecurity of the stables to be used for the Badminton Horse Trials in 6 weeks time.
All horses have already been removed from the stables and thorough cleaning and disinfecting will follow shortly. The Equine Herpes Virus cannot survive outside the horse for any appreciable length of time.
The Hunt horse that showed clinical signs of infection is improving and is expected to make a full recovery"
