William Fox-Pitt asks ‘can we maintain Burghley entries?’

Six-time Burghley winner William Fox-Pitt reflects on this year’s event

This was a real Burghley, where cross-country was at the core. We must preserve that, with Burghley as the pinnacle.

Worryingly, entry numbers are decreasing – 52 starters this year, with an average of 57 in the past four years, compared to an average of 69 for 2015 to 2019.

We’re not lacking five-star horses, but maybe riders are scared and don’t need to do Burghley any more – an annual five-star campaign can be Badminton and then Pau or Maryland. Modern flashy horses, with great movement and a careful jump over 1.30m, are less suited to Burghley.

We should embrace different horses suiting different venues and there are incredible eventers who shouldn’t run at Burghley. But Burghley mustn’t become just for horses who can’t do dressage. Growing up, it was a dream to ride at Badminton and Burghley and that’s not the case for youngsters now.

To make Burghley more attractive, £250,000 to the winner instead of £115,000 might do the trick. The ex-racehorse class at Cornbury shows the draw of cash – 46 entries vie for the £45,000 first prize this year. Without that prize fund, they might have been lucky to get 15.

Too many at the FEI would like to tame eventing, with shorter, smaller courses, and four-star (the championship level) the top of the sport, but that’s not what riders want. Would it work to pull Badminton and Burghley out of the star system and just call them classics, giving them an elite status?

Perfect ground

For Burghley to produce such perfect ground after this dry summer was incredible. Horses really did gallop on it.

People forget what speeds event horses reach. In doing the required average of 570m per minute, they are regularly travelling at the same pace as National Hunt racehorses.

Designer Derek di Grazia used the terrain to the maximum. Although Burghley is hillier, in some ways Badminton is more unrelenting, with less demanding terrain but fewer chances to recover. Demanding as Burghley’s terrain is, it usually offers recovery opportunities but there were fewer of these this year.

A clever course

On the jumping side, Derek had been brave; retired riders tend to underestimate courses, but I was impressed it was so tough. I expected more trouble and campaigns ending at the Defender Dairy Mound (9abc); the corner proved forgiving and horses found a fifth leg. Five more completions might have been perfect, but 30 from 50 starters was good.

Riders weren’t particularly worried about the Pedigree Brushes (15 and 16), but it was very clever – they had to choose five, six or seven strides and ride an accurate turn. Done well, it looked an easy fence; on the wrong line, it created glance-offs and dodgy jumps and many problems at the following Maltings complex actually started here.

The corners at Joules at the Maltings (17ab and 18ab) were strategically positioned and offered four or five strides to the first, and six or seven to the second. The second (18b) was on one of the most serious lines ever to a corner. The flower pots meant you couldn’t get the line wrong, but you also couldn’t alter it or go wider or narrower to adjust your stride.

Harry Meade and Ros Canter made it look like a two-star fence.

After that, horses had half a minute to gather their breath downhill before the Trout Hatchery (21abcd and 22) – but subsequently, horses were more tired here than riders realised. The double turnbacks were demanding. A good few didn’t drop in well off the rising ground and landed out of balance, leading to awkward jumps and a few problems at the first chunky skinny.

Defender Valley (24abcd) was on a straight line and perhaps caused more issues than expected.

Other designers might have used brush at the final combinations, but frangibles and solid tables demanded respect and meant no opportunity to catch up time.

I predicted two or three inside the time, but wondered if I was losing my judgement when EquiRatings’ Diarmuid Byrne predicted five. I won that round with Diarm and we have a good banter; EquiRatings’ statistics add much to the sport.

● How can we keep Burghley entries up? Let us know at hhletters@futurenet.com, including your name, nearest town and county, for the chance for your letter to appear in a forthcoming issue of the magazine

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