Flag penalty leaves Oliver Townend’s Badminton lead in the balance – and why he heeded his dad’s last-minute advice

Oliver Townend put in a round in the Mars Badminton Horse Trials cross-country phase with Cooley Rosalent that could see him retain his place at the top of the leaderboard – if a flag penalty is removed.

Oliver had posted 21.1 in the dressage phase with the 2024 Kentucky winning-mare, and finished the cross-country with 1.2 time-faults – just 3sec outside the time.

Oliver rode his customary tight lines on this athletic mare, but it wasn’t totally plain sailing. They dislodged the flag at the first Agria corner, and had a couple of stumbles – after the Savills Staircase and again after the KBIS Chasm – but she barely broke her stride.

Then a few fences from home, Oliver took a slightly long route skimming round from the oxer to the direct second corner at Huntsman’s, where they flicked out the flag at 26b.

“I didn’t think there was an incident,” said Oliver. “She was going towards home and it’s a right-handed corner, she slid slightly to the outside and my foot hit the flag. She definitely jumped the fence, I definitely jumped the fence. Let’s hope sensible decisions are made.

“It’s become tricky this flag situation, but we’re all in the sport together. It’s difficult for the public to follow so hopefully the FEI will come up with a better solution.”

Oliver decided to take a long route there after a phone call with his dad.

“He said it had gone very dark in there, and two had crashed at the corner,” Oliver explained. “He thought that to gallop at the oxer was the sensible thing if I was around [making] the time. Can you imagine what my dad would say if I went to the corner and ran out?”

As for his mare’s prowess, Oliver was ecstatic.

“She’s unreal, isn’t she?” he said. “She won Kentucky as a 1o-year-old and didn’t really know what she’d done. It’s her first time really back in this situation with a fit jockey who didn’t have a broken collarbone [as Oliver had at Burghley 2024] so we didn’t know what to expect.

“We thought she’d light up, but she’s a serious horse,” said Oliver, who is currently lying sixth on Ballaghmor Class. “Both horses are at completely different ends of their careers, and I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

End of day update: Cooley Rosalent’s flag penalties were removed and they have moved back in to the lead. They are on a score of 22.3, ahead of Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo on 25.3.

The hard-luck stories of Badminton Horse Trials cross-country phase

Lauren Innes blotted her five-star copybook with her first cross-country penalties at this level on Global Fision M. They were putting in their customary brilliant round right up until Equidry Huntsman’s Close. The stride just didn’t come at the first corner and Global Fision M crashed through the fence, breaking the frangible and dislodging Lauren, who quickly up on her feet.

Another fantastic cross-country horse also had a blip on Eric Winter’s 2025 track. Sarah Ennis’ ride Grantstown Jackson was top 20 last year and is renowned for his speed. However, he looked ultra fresh early on the course, running straight past the skinny brush in the Mars Lake (fence 10b) and nearly jumping Sarah out of the saddle jumping the alternative.

Sarah schooled the 14-year-old – appropriately sporting rocket quarter marks – round to complete well down the order.

“He was amazing until the water and I thought we were on it, I don’t know whether the water splashed him but he stuck his head up and ran, and then he didn’t really want to go back in. Then he jumped into the second water and also ran. So it’s a little issue but I just hacked him round, did the long routes and there’s another day.

“I’m still really proud of him. He is a sensitive horse; he gets worried. And he was so good all the way home and we’ll just have to do more training before the next one.”

The 2022 Badminton winner Laura Collett gave five-star debutante Bling an educational round. The two-metre drop at the second sunken road took the chestnut mare by surprise so they re-presented and went on to complete. The mare finished with her ears pricked.

“I genuinely couldn’t be happier,” Laura said. “She started off a little bit green, jumping enormous and I thought it was going to be a long way round. But she got more and more confident until the step took her by surprise. Considering what she’s done, it’s very exciting for the future.”

They were also given 15 penalties at Huntsman’s Close, where Laura took the alternative route.

Fiona Kashel was impressive in the dressage phase, in seventh on 28.4 with Creevagh Silver De Haar. Fiona rode a smooth, well-balanced round across the country, but took a long route at Huntsman’s Close to complete a minute over the optimum, which dropped them down the order.

How to watch Badminton Horse Trials

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