‘He feels as good as he’s ever felt’: Oliver Townend’s veteran legend puts himself in contention after dressage at Pau five-star

Ballaghmor Class has already written himself into annals of eventing history, but at 18 years old, there could yet be one last hurrah. Oliver Townend declared the four-time five-star winner – owned by Karyn Shuter, Angela Hislop and Val Ryan – to be “as good as ever” after taking joint second at the conclusion of the Pau Horse Trials dressage phase.

It was a remarkably consistent and high-quality test, with only two of the 78 marks available dipping below a seven – and the mid-test halt scoring two nines. The French judge, Eric Lieby, at B, put them in first spot, above Bubby Upton and Cannavaro.

“He went in like an old pro, he was pretty push-button,” said Oliver. “Never mind what score he got, he felt as good as he’s ever felt. I think that’s probably as good as any test he’d done at five-star level.”

They sit 0.5 of a penalty – just over a second of cross-country time – behind the leaders.

Ballaghmor Class – known at home as Thomas – has only had a handful of runs this year, winning two and finishing third twice more. He was withdrawn from the final horse inspection at Badminton in the spring after defending his 100% cross-country clear rate over 13 five-star runs.  He has only had one run since, a four-star at Little Downham less than a month ago, and many assumed – perhaps including Oliver – that this grand old campaigner’s career had come to an end.

But Thomas wasn’t having it.

“We didn’t really plan to be here [at five-star again], to tell you the truth,” said Oliver. “But he convinced us that he’d not done enough yet, which is amazing – and hard to believe.

“I’ve never come to a five-star thinking ‘no, no, no’ – but he’s gone ‘yes’ all the way. So we took him to Little Downham to give him a preparation run, and he was fairly wild and didn’t give me an easy time. He ran off round the cross-country! He was pretty wild in the dressage too, and I said to Karyn, ‘We’ll give him half a proper run to see how he comes out.’ And the next day he towed everyone round the yard.

“That’s what he’s like when he’s on form. Pretty horrible to deal with for the girls, but a pleasure for me to ride when we get the management right. Today I couldn’t be happier with his performance.”

As the Courage-sired gelding has contested either Burghley, Maryland or championships in the autumns since he’s been competing at this level, this is his first visit to the flat racecourse track of Pau. But Oliver hopes this may play in his favour, even if there aren’t any hills to help slow this brilliant cross-country horse down.

“I’m just hoping that as he doesn’t know his way he might actually ask me a couple of questions for once,” said Oliver.

“He’s done an Olympics and that looked like it wasn’t his type of course but there isn’t really a course that doesn’t suit him. But he knows his way around Badminton, Burghley, Kentucky and now Maryland, so I’m hoping he looks at the crowd and the trees and doesn’t run off with me like he did last time out!”

Enjoy watching him while you can. It’s a treat for eventing fans to have another sighting of this all-time great doing what he loves best.

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