Townend celebrates win

May 16 2009 The Journal

OLIVER Townend clinched a lifelong ambition this week by winning the Badminton Horse Trials riding homebred 12-year-old grey gelding Flint Curtis.

The final showjumping discipline turned out to be a nerve-racking, under pressure round as five riders battled to go clear and the chance to lift the coveted trophy. The rider’s only real mistake in the competition was to put a pole down in the vital 13-fence showjumping round and a second pole down would have handed the trophy to former winner and eventual runner-up William Fox-Pitt and Idalgo who went clear and with 2.4 cross country time penalties.

Cumbria’s Ruth Edge, riding Mayhem III, also with three down, might have wanted to re-name her horse after potentially looking for a third place but having to settle, instead, for eighth.

A clear round gave British-based Australian Sam Griffiths and Happy Times third place. The pair, 20th after dressage, rose to eighth place after cross-country.

Italian first-timer Roberto Rotatori, who came back to competitive riding three years ago after giving up seven years previously, rode Irham de Viages and finished in fourth place to become the highest-placed Italian rider in the history of Badminton Horse Trials.

For Flint Curtis this was his third appearance at Badminton after being withdrawn after dressage in 2007 and a third place in 2006.

Badminton was his fifth outing for the current season with recent morale-boosting wins at Burnham Market and Poplar Park. Kelso’s New Zealand International Caroline Powell on Lenamore could have wished for a better dressage test after putting in two near perfect clear jumping rounds leaving in ninth place.