Pippa Funnell and William Fox-Pitt, two of Britain’s top riders and the closest of friends and teammates for nearly 20 years,found themselves slugging it out in a battle for the richest prize in eventing, the $94,000 Mitsubishi Motors Trophy at Badminton.

Funnell’s unquestioned superiority in the dressage gave her the edge, May 5-8 in Gloucester, England, for her third Badminton victory in four years, but only by a nerve-racking 1.6-penalty margin.

The top two combinations could not be more different: the petite Funnell perched on the grand and leggy 17-hand Primmore’s Pride, who won the 2003 Rolex Kentucky CCI**** and Burghley CCI**** (England), versus a 6’5″ Fox-Pitt on last year’s winner Tamarillo, a wicked bundle of irrepressible energy and athleticism.

Primmore’s Pride has a majestic but time-wasting cross-country style, while Tamarillo, owned and bred by American Mary Guinness, messes around in dressage but goes like a rip-rap across country. As a result, the pair were neck-and-neck at the final phase, in which they both show jumped clear, and an enthralled crowd didn’t know which way to turn.

The two riders are the same age–both born in 1968–and have long propped each other up through the bad patches in life. “We had breakfast together this morning,” said Fox-Pitt, “and we reflected that this would have been the most ideal situation if we were in a team competition instead of trying to beat the hell out of each other at Badminton!

“Obviously I can’t help wishing that Tamarillo had been better behaved in the dressage–he is capable of being 10 marks higher, but I couldn’t do a thing with him. Coming second feels tough after our win last year, but I can honestly say it’s no disgrace to finish behind a horse like Primmore’s Pride and my overriding feeling is that I’m just so lucky to have Tamarillo back after he was injured in Athens. He’s a fabulous horse.”

A post-Olympic Badminton tends to be less star-studded, but all five of Britain’s silver-medal team from Athens were in attendance, plus Australia’s triple Olympic gold medallist Andrew Hoy, who achieved his best ever Badminton result with third and sixth on Master Monarch and his Athens horse, Mr. Pracatan. Last year’s runners-up, New Zealander Andrew Nicholson on Lord Killinghurst, came fourth this time.

The first outing for the new four-star dressage test, written by Chris Bartle, showed that riders clearly need more time to accustom themselves to the test, in which the movements come up fast. Only six riders scored under 50, which is unusual for Badminton. Australia’s Sammi McLeod, 38th (58.2) with Enchanted and Nicholson, 12th (52.0) with an oddly tense Lord Killinghurst, were among the disappointed.

Not Too Easy

A cross-country preview in Horse & Hound, penned by experienced competitor Karen Dixon, got tongues wagging for describing event director Hugh Thomas’ track as too easy and “lacking the wow factor.” There were only five new fences, but several had been tweaked to increase diffi-culty, and none of the riders were rash enough to agree with Dixon’s assessment.

Nicholson, an immaculate trailblazer on his Olympic horse Fenicio, commented: “Things have changed in cross-country design, and you’ve got to move with the times. It’s got to be made as friendly as you can. I don’t actually think it’s as easy as people think. The first horses out on course tend to be world class and should make it look easy. And after last year [when rain turned the course into a swamp] we don’t want anything really hard.”

“The day was everything I’d hoped for,” said Thomas. “I think it was one of the best days in the sport for a while, and, despite the previews, I don’t think any of the leading riders thought the course was too easy.”

America’s Heidi White said, “You hope and dream of coming here, and, when you do, it’s overwhelming. I’ve done other four-stars, but this is a whole new ballgame. I’ve never seen anything like the Vicarage Vee!”

For a “soft” cross-country, it sprang plenty of surprises.

The Olympic champion Leslie Law, a recent third at Rolex Kentucky on Coup de Cour, felt the flip side of the sport when he landed on the deck with both his gray horses. Shear H20 landed steeply over the unforgiving fence into the Quarry three from home and crumpled to the floor, while the gold medalist Shear L’Eau crash-landed after taking off too far out at the Vicarage Vee.

Former British team member Tina Cook, who only gave birth to her baby daughter Isobel in February, was going well on Captain Christy when they had a disagreement in front of an upright gate out of the wood at Huntsman’s Close. The horse screwed over the gate and Cook hit the ground painfully, fracturing a thoracic vertebra.

Mary King was having a strong ride on Call Again Cavalier, the horse she has inherited from Caroline Pratt, who died at Burghley last year, when they, too, had a misunderstanding in front of the angled Outlander Tree Trunks four from home and ran out.

No one got wet in the Lake for once, but Bumble Thomas had a nasty spill when Nabatean Treat tripped and landed head first on the way out. Polly Jackson’s first ride Limestone Rise also tripped here, but poor Jackson was already distracted by the TV technology she had strapped around her waist.

She had agreed to wear a head camera, but the belt holding the transmitter worked loose and she virtually had to ride the whole course one-armed.

The press office later apologized, and the rest of the project was scrapped.

To add insult with her second ride, the tiny skewbald Two For Joy, Jackson ran along the top of the steep drop at fence 3, the Little Badminton Drop, but continued blithely, unaware she would be penalized.

She contested her 20 penalties for a stop, but the decision stayed, and she dropped way down the order from a potential fourth place.

Two British first-timers well-placed after dressage, horse dentist Francis Whittington, third on Spin Doctor, and Milla Healey, sixth on Zarzoo, also dropped out of contention. After getting in a muddle with the two corners at the Hunt Kennels, Whittington retired at the Lake. Healey completed but with two run-outs.

Riding Among The Legends

It was a great day for the 20 or so first-timers. Will Faudree of the United States put up a stunning performance as one of the 14 riders home inside the optimum time of 12:02 and rose 32 places to 17th. His compatriot Sara Kozumplik on As You Like

It was outside the time with 18.4 penalties, but still rose from 54th to 37th, while White put up a highly impressive performance on her lovely horse Northern Spy, to clock just 2 penalties and move up from 23rd after dressage to 12th.

“My horse was fantastic. I had to press for the time, but he felt sharp and great,” White said.

All three riders from the nations represented for the first time at Badminton went clear: Jaraslau Hatla (Czech Republic), Pepo Puch (Croatia) and Yoshiaki Oiwa (Japan).

The latter was a star of the show as, for several surreal hours, he headed the cross-country leaderboard on the 18-year-old Voyou du Roc, an experienced Japanese team horse who competed at the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics with different riders. “I am in the lead? It’s incredible,” said Oiwa.

Trained by the Hoys, Oiwa learned to ride at age 10 but did not enjoy it greatly: “Ex-race horses, too fast, I fell off a lot,” he explained. He began riding Voyou du Roc two years ago, having been able to buy him thanks to a quarantine mix-up that prevented the horse returning to Japan and only just missed the cut for the Athens Olympics.

At the end of the day at Badminton he was amazed to find himself sitting in between Funnell and Fox-Pitt at the press conference, for as cross-country drew to a close, they were the only ones to go ahead of him.

The three debated the demise of the long format at Badminton, which saw extraordinary crowds making their way up to the steeplechase course to stand four-deep all round the track and watch the last hurrah.

Funnell said: “I will be very sad. It will be daunting coming out fresh under the Mitsubishi arch and facing the cross-country straight off, but if short format benefits horses then it’s a good thing.”

Fox-Pitt, whose first ride Ballincoola (fourth at Rolex last year) was pulled up on the steeplechase with a fibrillating heart, had first-hand experience of how the steeplechase can act as a safety net for horses who aren’t quite right. Oiwa said he would miss the steeplechase as a way of getting his eye in.

Better Than Athens

Fox-Pitt’s Tamarillo has made an amazing recovery from the injury sustained in Athens–a bone chipped off a hock–which prevented him from gaining what stood to be significant medal honors. “He is a fabulous horse, incredible to ride,” said Fox-Pitt, who was 40 seconds up on the clock for much of the way and had to begin pulling up six fences from home.

His performance closed the gap with Funnell, but not enough, as she steered the leggy Primmore’s Pride triumphantly home with just 3.6 time penalties to remain 1.6 points ahead. It was a vastly improved performance from Funnell’s nightmare ride in Athens when the horse pulled her arms out, and the new, milder bitting clearly works.

“I didn’t expect to still be in the lead, because we do still have steering and pulling issues, but I am chuffed that he didn’t pull,” said Funnell, who has been associated with this horse since he was a 2-year-old.

There were 44 clears from the 68 cross-country starters and 56 went forward to the final day, with Fenicio a notable casualty, spun at the final horse inspection.

There were few clear show jumping rounds in the morning session, but the afternoon’s big guns made the track look easy. The three Americans all faulted, though Kozumplik stayed 37th despite five rails down. Faudree dropped five places to 22nd with three down.

But White rose to 10th place despite a single rail on the floor. This meant she claimed her first “silver horse,” a much coveted and traditional Badminton memento for those finishing in the top 12.

Poor Oiwa descended from third to 11th with three rails down. Apparently this could have been much worse, as former Japanese team trainer Eric Duvander revealed that Voyou du Roc has quite a stop in him.

Hoy jumped two incredible clears, thus overtaking his pupil at last and gaining his best Badminton result, third and sixth, after 26 years of trying. “We’re very proud of Yoshi,” said Hoy. “It just shows what can be achieved with a bit of hard work. At my first Badminton I only got to fence 11!”

British Olympic team members Jeanette Brakewell and the 17-year-old Over To You, for whom it was a last Badminton, went out on a high with a clear round and fifth place. Nicholson rose to fourth on Lord Killinghurst, pulling off a great clear on this notoriously difficult show jumper.

After Oiwa’s disappearance, the atmosphere hushed for the Funnell-Fox-Pitt showdown. Surely they couldn’t both jump clear. But, in an extraordinarily tense finale, they did.

“My brain went numb,” said Funnell, who was already in an emotional state about her retirement parade in the main arena on the 17-year-old Supreme Rock, who had to be withdrawn from Badminton the week before due to his old tendon injury flaring.

“I thought the Grand Slam [in 2003] was pressure, but this felt just as bad. Everyone knows Primmore’s Pride is a fabulous jumper, and I’d have felt so stupid if he’d had a fence down.”

Many truly great horses suffer the injustice of never winning Badminton–the likes of Ready Teddy, Darien Powers
and Charisma–so perhaps the most satisfying aspect of Primmore’s Pride’s victory is that he deserves that accolade. He has been a star in the making ever since his owners, Roger and Denise Lincoln, spotted him as a foal at the 1993 High Performance Sale and splashed out top price on him.

That was $7,500, and, with a record hat trick of Kentucky, Burghley–and now Badminton–wins under his belt, it seems like money
well spent.