New Zealander Mark Todd braved the worst of the weather at Badminton yesterday and put in a sensational dressage performance with his open European championship ride Broadcast News to win in a downpour that would have tested the mother of all waterproofs.
Ignoring the deluge that left him feeling "as though I'd already had a fall in the water", Todd conjured up a supremely professional test from the horse he describes as "a wind-up toy" to give him an eight-point advantage over Thursday's leaders Pippa Funnell and Supreme Rock.
Todd, aiming for his fourth Badminton win and hoping that he won't be extending his hat-trick of seconds, has joined his fellow competitors in criticising the new scoring system which he believes resulted in 10 per cent of the runners at Saumur ending up in hospital after falls caused by excess speed across country.
"The new scoring system is a load of rubbish," he said yesterday. Commenting on the change that means one penalty for every second over the optimum time, he stated that course designer Hugh Thomas "has built his course to suit his new scoring system".
Fellow Kiwi Blyth Tait is in full agreement, but his hopes of finally breaking his Badminton duck, already shortened by Ready Teddy's explosive dressage on Thursday, were halved yesterday when he was forced to withdraw his Burghley winner Chesterfield with a neck injury.
Eric Smiley, who also rose above the elements to ride the magnificent grey Enterprise into a personal best equal eighth, believes that Thomas has gone closer to producing a five-star track than ever before. However, he will be going all out for the 12minute optimum time across country today in a bid to erase memories of the heart-rending fall that brought about a premature end to his tour of the World Equestrian Games track in Rome last autumn.
The Co. Down rider, who heads out around the country at lunch time today, is currently 17 points adrift of the leaders and will have his work cut out to overhaul both Todd and defending champion Christopher Bartle, currently in third with Oscar. Mark Kyle, who made his Badminton debut 12 months ago with Irish Patriot, is also confident that his horse can cope with the new demands of what was already the most testing cross-country in the world.
"There's nothing out there that he can't jump," he said, after slotting the talented grey into equal 45th with European champion Bettina Overesch, one point clear of Olympic and world champion Tait.
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