Equestrian: Course throws many riders

BADMINTON - Badminton should have been celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Instead, director and course designer Hugh Thomas was being slated by riders as three competitors and two spectators were hospitalised and more than half the field abandoned the cross country course.

While organisers tried to use the heavy weather as an excuse for the chaos, experienced riders like Mark Todd and Andrew Nicholson pointed the finger directly at Thomas and the new scoring system he was instrumental in having introduced. Both said it was time for him to go.

"Hugh built this course to protect his scoring system," Todd, the Professional Event Riders president, said. "I think he overdid it."

Todd said Thomas was a strong force in the sport, but riders now had no choice but to try to limit his influence both at Badminton and as the international federation's three-day event committee chairman. It was that committee which approved the new scoring system.

Of the 70 horses which started day two, just 32 finished. Some riders withdrew even before they reached the cross country phase - such as New Zealand first-timer Virginia Loisel - because time penalties picked up on the boggy steeplechase meant there was no point going on.

World championship bronze medallist Paula Tornquist of Sweden didn't even bother to try the steeplechase.

After the cross country day the competition was effectively over, even though the showjumping was still to be held.

Scotland's Ian Stark, riding the New Zealand-bred eight-year-old Jaybee, was leading on 95 penalties, 20 points ahead of Todd on his young horse Word For Word.

Todd had a 29-point lead over third-placed Kerry Milliken of the United States on Out And About.
Stark will have to knock five rails down in the showjumping before Todd could win. and Todd could knock six rails down before Milliken could catch him.

"Well, it's sure going to be exciting out there tomorrow," Todd remarked with some degree of sarcasm after the cross country.

After two of the three phases, New Zealand still had four horses in the top 10, and all its competitors left in the top half of the field.

Remarkably, Andrew Nicholson showed his skills to conquer the conditions and was fifth on New York and 10th on Merillion.

Daniel Jocelyn, riding Silence in their first Badminton, performed courageously to bring his very tired horse home clear in the cross country but with 79 time penalties, to be eighth.

Andrew Bennie on Wottabert was 16th. Blyth Tait pulled Ready Teddy out of the contest after a runout at a fence, as did Catriona McLeod on Win For Me after a fall.

Todd, the overnight leader after the dressage on Broadcast News, withdrew the horse after it ran out at one jump, which Todd put down to the horse not liking the heavy going underfoot.

Both Todd and Nicholson blamed the problems on the angles of the course - directly attributable to Thomas.

The narrow angles, extra twists and turns, meant the horses had to tackle fences along one line. On the steeplechase - which looked like a ploughed field - and later a cross-country course, it meant there was no chance for horses in the worst of the conditions, such as Broadcast News, to pick a clean line in front of a jump.

Two spectators were hurt when Australian Stuart Tinney lost control of his horse after a fall. Both were taken to hospital with broken bones. Tinney pulled out of the competition to help the injured pair. - NZPA