Bunnie Sexton and Rise Against. Photo by Leslie Threlkeld.
The draw order is up for the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials! Britain’s Tom Crisp and Coolys Luxury have the honor of being the first pair to go, and Elisa Wallace and the Simply Priceless Syndicate’s Simply Priceless will trail-blaze for the U.S. contingent as #23.
Bunnie Sexton and her own Rise Against will likely do their dressage at the end of the first day in the #42 slot. Rio Olympics individual bronze medalist Phillip Dutton should go early on the second day with Tom Tierney and Annie Jones’ Fernhill Fugitive as #54.
Of course we will be cheering loudly for our honorary American in Nilson Moreira da Silva and U.S.-bred Muggle, owned by The Phoenix Syndicate, who will go out two spots after Phillip as #56 representing Brazil.
Libby Head and her own Sir Rockstar captured hearts around the world when they romped to the best American finish at Badminton this spring, and now they return to Burghley to wow us once more. They go out as #64.
Last but not least, we have Holly Payne Caravella and The Fox Syndicate’s Never OutFoxed as #89, the penultimate pair in the field.
Here’s a fun fact on the U.S. contingent: Four of the five horses are Thoroughbreds, and three of them raced. Simply Priceless raced 10 times in Australia as Kalinga Damo, Rise Against raced four times as Trabuco Kid, and Sir Rockstar raced 16 times as Sir Rock. Never OutFoxed didn’t race, but he’s all Thoroughbred on the cross country course.
You’ll also see several key U.S. withdrawals from Burghley on the draw order. Leah Lang-Gluscic planned to make her overseas debut with AP Prime, but he unfortunately aggravated the collateral ligament in his left front foot while running cross country at the Rebecca Farm CIC3* last month.
Britain’s James Alliston, another of our honorary Americans, has also withdrawn Parker. Phillip Dutton was originally entered on Mighty Nice, but of course the horse ended up being called up to the U.S. team and went on to win individual bronze in Rio. Lastly, our thoughts continue to be with Liz Halliday-Sharp on the loss of HHS Cooley.
