Young British talent eyes up first senior four-star long win as Bramham cross-country juggles leaderboard

Bubby Upton retains her lead at the top of the CCI4*-L after the Defender Bramham Horse Trials cross-country today.

The British rider and the grey 10-year-old Its Cooley Time, owned by his rider and the Five Time Syndicate, cruised round five seconds inside the optimum time to retain their top spot.

Bubby Upton was under-25 champion here in 2023, as well as at Bicton in 2021, but is bidding for her first senior CCI4*-L win if she can hold onto her Bramham Horse Trials cross-country lead in tomorrow’s showjumping.

The 26-year-old has fought back to the top of the sport after suffering a potentially career-ending spinal injury in the summer of 2023.

Izzy Taylor and Jane Timmis’s SRS Big Wall, third following the first phase, had a somewhat sticky ride out of the Womble Bond Dickinson Pond at fence 19abcd and were initially shown as having a flag penalty at the corner, the final element. But this was subsequently removed and they now hold second, having added just 0.8 of a time-fault to their dressage score.

Caroline Harris, heading out near the end of the class, moved up from sixth after dressage to third overnight with a fault-free round on Cooley Mosstown, owned by Gail Sinclair, Karen Dunford and Dinah Posford.

Similarly, a clear inside the time elevated Tom Jackson and Michael Stenning’s nine-year-old United 36 from seventh after dressage to fourth. The British rider also holds sixth on a relatively new ride, Helen Scott’s Hawk Eye, up from 13th after dressage

Ireland-based Brit Daniel Alderson sits fifth on Blarney Monbeg Pepper, moving up from 12th after dressage and building on their good result at Boekelo last year.

Heffernan’s first Bramham track

This is Andrew Heffernan’s first year as Bramham Horse Trials cross-country course-designer and his Defender CCI4*-L track rode well, but also proved influential. Thirty-five of 52 starters (66%) in this CCI4*-L class jumped clear, with 43 finishing the course (82.7%). Problems were well spread around the 24-fence track.

Sarah Bullimore was second after dressage on home-bred Corimiro but had a refusal at the first element of the Rail, Ditch, Rail combination at 8abc, with Sarah retiring further round the course.

The optimum time of 10min 3sec turned out to be very achievable and 17 pairs came home inside the target (32.7% of starters).

Against that landscape, any time-penalties were expensive. Young Brit Barnie Brotherton, 22, had 6.4 time-faults on his recent Bicton Nations Cup ride DHI King Nelson, sliding from fifth after dressage to equal 17th.

Sweden’s Louise Romeike and Caspian 15 also lost their provisional fourth place when they incurred 8.4 time-faults. They now share 17th with Barnie and DHI King Nelson.

Daisy Berkeley (Diese Du Figuier) and Toshiyuki Tanaka (Jefferson JRA) both notched up 8.4 time-penalties and so moved from eighth and 10th after dressage to 22nd and 23rd following the cross-country.

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