AUSTIN O'CONNOR, a member of Ireland's gold medal team at last year European young rider three day event championships is out of Badminton even before the Mitsubishi Motors fixture gets underway this morning.

The 21 year old Cork jockey, who is now based in Cornwall, was added to the Olympic short list last week in view of his impending Badminton debut, but the nine year old gelding Hang On failed yesterday afternoon's first horse inspection.

Hang On had notched up a number of top 10 placings in the buildup to Badminton and bad been tipped as an outsider for this, the world's most prestigious three day event. But the gelding was slightly unlevel when first presented before the ground jury yesterday and was held over for re-inspection.

The vet in the holding area found tenderness above the off fore fetlock joint, but suggested that the horse should be re presented. Hang On was obviously lame at the second trot up, however, and became the first of three horses that failed to get through.

"We did our best for him," ground jury president Lord Carew said, "but we really had no choice."

The dramatic removal of O'Connor and Hang On follows a succession of disasters that had already reduced the Irish representation at Badminton from five to just two. European champion Lucy Thompson had to withdraw her gold medal horse Welton Romance after the mare missed two weeks of fast work due to a knock David Foster pulled out Tilt `n' Turn with a liver infection and Vina Buller, who finished 16th at her first Badminton outing with Knockdrin last year, withdrew the horse after he exacerbated an old injury at Belton Park last month.

Happily, Buller's husband, Alfie, who competed as an individual at last year's European championships, got the thumbs up for Sir Knight at yesterday's inspection and does his dressage test tomorrow afternoon.

The Americans also suffered a major blow when Bruce Davidson, who won the Mitsubishi Motors trophy 12 months ago with the Irish bred Eagle Lion, was forced to withdraw yesterday morning. Davidson fell at the Lexington three day event in Kentucky last weekend and thought that the injury to his shoulder was merely muscle and ligament damage. But a Harley Street physiotherapist who examined the American on Tuesday diagnosed a broken shoulder and the defending champion withdrew his horse Squelch yesterday morning.