Buck and Reggie, courtesy of the great Nico Morgan
Ruth Edge and Two Thyme improved exactly one place from their dressage performance at Badminton last year and they hold the top spot going into the cross-country. Ruth and her 17 year old thoroughbred scored a 33.3 and hold what amounts to a 6 second lead going into the cross-country ahead of Piggy French and Jakata, who placed 16th at the WEGs for Great Britain. Overnight leader Laura Collett held onto 3rd and Mark Todd moved into 4th with Land Vision. It feels weird to wrap up Badminton dressage on a Saturday, but nonetheless, here is your leader board going into the Sunday cross-country:
Badminton Dressage Results:
1. Ruth Edge and Two Thyme 33.3
2. Piggy French and Jakata 36.0
3. Laura Collett and Rayef 36.5
4. Mark Todd and Land Vision 36.8
5. Emily Baldwin and Drivetime 39.7
6. Marina Kohncke and Calma Schelly (GER) 39.8
7. Oliver Townend and Ashdale Cruise Master 40.5
8. Aoife Clark and Master Crusoe (IRL)
…10T. Selena O’Hanlon and Colombo (CAN) 43.3
15T. Karen O’Connor and Mandiba (USA) 44.5
26T. Buck Davidson and Ballynoecastle (USA) 47.3
34. Hawley Bennett-Awad and Gin ‘N Juice (CAN) 50.2
42. Jennifer Wooten and The Good Witch (USA) 53.7
74. Steph Rhodes-Bosch and Port Authority (CAN) 62.7
–As expected, the British riders really stepped their game up today and the British contingent now holds 5 of the top 7 spots at Badminton. Ruth, Piggy French, and Emily Baldwin all had great performances to jump in the top 5 for the Brits.
–Ruth Edge will look to rebound from her performance on the cross-country last year with Two Thyme. Their round started off shaky and didn’t get better, ending in a fall. But, they rebounded from that with an 8th at Pau and hopefully the experience last year will lead them to a great performance tomorrow.
–The North American riders had a quality Friday of dressage. Selena and Colombo raised some eyebrows for Canada to sit in 10th. Karen and Buck should both be pleased with their tests as well. It shows the quality of the Badminton field for Karen and Buck to be just 2.8 points apart but 11 spots different on the leader board. At Badminton, more than any other event, every tiny point matters. I would bet Steph wished she could get her test back, but their weekend won’t be defined by their dressage either way. Jennifer and Pooh had their routine solid dressage and will look to climb the ranks throughout the weekend. Overall, I’d love to see a US rider get in the top 10 of the dressage at every 4* in the world, but there is a long weekend ahead of us.
–For anyone who didn’t take Mark Todd’s comeback seriously, today is more evidence that it’s time to wake up. Toddy is just 3.5 points behind Ruth and he’s in great position to get his 4th win at Badminton. Land Vision is less experienced than I bet Mark would like but there’s no better rider to give a horse an educational yet fast ride.
–Friday’s overnight leader Laura Collett only dropped two spots today and she sits in absolutely perfect position–just far enough back to take some of the media attention away but close enough to set up a great finish to Badminton. Laura has an unbelievably bright future ahead of her and I’ll be interested to see how she balances the chance to win with the importance of having a steady trip around her second and Rayef’s first four-star.
[Audio interviews with Ruth and other riders]
–As Samantha pointed out this morning, be sure to download the Badminton iPhone app for a variety of reasons, including the ability to listen to Badminton radio when you are out and about…heck, you can even listen to it while you are riding. Badminton radio is also available in the sidebar of their website, but Mac users have to use Chrome or Safari because it won’t play in Firefox.
–To recap what we explained yesterday about the live feed, from what I have heard the only online viewing option outside of the UK will be to pay for FEI TV. BBC Sports will broadcast the same feed as FEI TV for free but that will only be available to viewers in the UK, sadly.
–Stay tuned later for a Badminton ‘battle of the nations’ from Eventing Nation.
We’ll have much more from Badminton later today, before the cross-country gets started bright and early Sunday morning. As always, wherever you might be, thanks for making Eventing Nation part of your day. Go eventing.
