Overnight top three confirmed at Burghley as Sunday nail-biter horse and debutante mare go clear

Tim Price holds second at the conclusion of the Defender Burghley Horse Trials cross-country today, having finished with 3.2 time-faults on the experienced Vitali.

“This was definitely the best he’s felt. He’s a real privilege to ride around there, because he can go fast across the ground, but then you can balance him up at the end. I jumped into the double of corners, which has been causing trouble all day, for the four strides – but then I got scared and fiddled a fifth stride. But you can do that with him, at six or seven minutes through the course, so that’s impressive in terms his adjustability,” said Tim, who sits 3.5 penalties behind overnight leader Ros Canter with Lordships Graffalo.

It is well known that Vitali, who belongs to his rider Tim and the Giannamores, is not the best showjumper, so having him in the top-three makes for a nail-biting final-phase tomorrow.

“Although you have highs and lows and disappointments, he’s gaining experience and starting to understand the whole package,” said Tim Price after his Burghley Horse Trials cross-country round. “He used to nap going to the start box, now he marches up there. It’s all building into something he can understand and that’s key to him performing.

“I know he’s often been in a winning position, but I’m really trying to compile three decent phases with him and if that’s a good result, that’s secondary to what I’m trying to achieve.”

Harry Meade’s final ride, the sensitive mare Annaghmore Valoner, turned into a tiger on the Burghley cross-country today. Belying her inexperience at five-star, she took on everything that Harry was asked of her and came home easily inside the time to take third overnight. The 12-year-old mare belongs to Dinah and Stephen Posford and their daughter Juliet Carter.

Harry said: “I tried to give her a quiet ride at speed. I tried to set out really fast and steeplechase every straightforward fence, including fence one, but, but really hold her hand and give her confidence. She wouldn’t be that resilient. She’d get upset very easily if something happened, even something in the crowd, or she caught a fence or something, she could just panic in her breathing.

“But she was wonderful from beginning to end, she grew and grew. She feels like she’s really come of age now and was wonderfully professional.”

Harry is also in fifth on Cavalier Crystal, another inside the time, and 15th on Superstition, who had 10.8 time-faults.

“I had a plan for all three horses. I had five entered and probably left the two strongest cross-country horses behind. I did a bit of a mathematical calculation and thought these three had the best chance of the lowest finishing scores, but there was an element of risk,” said Harry.

Speaking about producing three horses to jump clears round this track, which is perhaps the toughest in the world, Harry added: “It is a real team effort. I’m pretty hopeless at a lot of things, but one thing we can do is produce confident, happy, resilient, five-star horses, from young horses, and it’s not how you produce them in the month leading up to this. It’s 10, 15 years, and it’s a process which not everyone buys into, but I personally believe it’s about giving them that long-term, slow confidence, and then when you get somewhere like this, they’re absolutely bulletproof.”

France’s Gaspard Maksud (Zaragoza) is in fourth, while Gemma Stevens and Chilli Knight round out the overnight top six.

Burghley Horse Trials cross-country results: top six

1. Ros Canter (Lordships Graffalo): 22
2. Tim Price (Vitali): 25.5
3. Harry Meade (Annaghmore Valoner): 27.8
4. Gaspard Maksud (Zaragoza): 30.4
5. Harry Meade (Cavalier Crystal): 31.3
6. Gemma Stevens (Chilli Knight): 32.1

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