The draw for the Badminton Horse Trials was done overnight and some of our Kiwi competitors will be smiling, some will not.
One who probably would have liked a more favourable draw would be Sir Mark Todd on Leonidas II – they will be second to go. We can only hope the dressage judges are well warmed up by then and feeling like they can award good marks on the first day. Historically, this hasn’t happened very often.
Of course Sir Mark was always going to be somewhere in the beginning and at the end, having two horses, and he is 98th to go on NZB Campino. Both are serious contenders for the title but with that draw, perhaps it is NZB Campino who will shorten up in the Badminton betting stakes.
Tim Price is another who has two horses in, so was also going to be at the beginning and end. He is sixth to go on either Bango or Xavier Faer and 105th to go on either Xavier Faer or Ringwood Sky Boy. The two horses are bracketed, as he currently has three entered, but Ringwood Sky Boy (all things going well) will be heading to Kentucky to compete there the week before, so we are picking Bango will be the first out with Tim, then it will be Xavier Faer.
Andrew Nicholson is another with two horses and he is 14th on Qwanza and last to go (111th) on Nereo. Andrew is no stranger to going last: he was last out on Nereo in 2014, but when the horse had an uncharacteristic exit at the Gatehouse Pond, leaving a leg, Andrew was tipped off. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen again, and that the ground is still good by the time he comes to do his round.
Other Kiwis competing include Dan Jocelyn on Dasset Cool Touch (drawn 19th), Jesse Campbell on Kaapachino (26th), Caroline Powell on Onwards and Upwards (28th), and Blyth Tait and Bear Necessity (59th).
All of those riders should be fairly happy with their draw. Blyth even took to Twitter about his draw number.
https://twitter.com/BlythTait/status/854340782966403073
The draw list also includes wait-listed horses, so will be reduced once entries are finalised closer to the event. Usually there are around 80 starting.
If you would like to see the full draw, here’s the link.
