In Badminton, Rosalind Canter and Lordships Graffalo are in pole position

On this second day of dressage, the British couple formed by Rosalind Canter and Lordships Graffalo knew how to get everyone to agree. In the English rain, the duo executed a magnificent recovery in 77.95% and took the lead in the standings at the end of the test. Despite the somewhat muddy ground, the eleven-year-old gelding and his rider, second in the previous edition, chained good marks, particularly seducing New Zealand judge Andrew Bennie, placed at the level of the letter B, who awarded them a score by almost 80%. The rider is full of praise for her sidekick, a horse who seems to relish her work. “He loves it“, she said off the track. “If the crowd had tapped their feet, he would have danced even more. That’s why he’s such a good eventing horse. It’s great to be on top today, but with such small differences in dressage scores, it probably won’t be that big tomorrow. It’s a great cross country track and it’s just going to be a matter of getting in the groove and climbing reasonably uphill depending on the conditions.” In the lead after the first day of competition, Oliver Townend and Swallow Springs fell to third place in the standings, just behind Kitty King and Friday Biats who achieved a good performance today in 77.69%, positioning them at only 0 .2 points from the leading torque. “I’m happy with my position and I don’t have the pressure to be in the lead now”, said Oliver Townend at the end of the test. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the top three were the same tomorrow, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were totally upset either. We will just have to climb depending on the weather conditions”.

Gireg Le Coz leads the tricolor clan

Tenth yesterday after the first day of dressage, the duo made up of Gireg Le Coz and Aisprit de la Loge has fallen back somewhat in the rankings, but today retains a very respectable twentieth place. With a score of 29.7 penalties, the Habs are currently 7.6 points off the lead. The first Frenchman to take the start this morning at 8.30 a.m. local time, Arthur Marx, accompanied by his faithful Church’Ile, is currently in fifty-second position for his very first participation in the mythical competition. With an average of 65.32%, the rider has a total of 34.7 points, or 12.6 penalties more than the leader of the classification. His compatriot Luc Château, in the saddle of Viens du Mont, averaged 63.01%, placing him in fifty-sixth place with a score of 37 points. Finally, Arthur Duffort and Toronto d’Aurois recovered in the morning by 62.05% and currently occupy the fifty-eighth place with 15.9 points more than the leading couple.

A cross that promises surprises

Due to the capricious weather, the organizers announced today that they have made some last minute changes to adapt the cross country test to the weather conditions. Indeed, the reception of element B of obstacle 15 will be stabilized, the second element of combination 17 will be removed as well as the A of number 27, the level of the ford will be lowered, and finally, part of the decoration of the obstacle 26 will be removed. On the other hand, the time granted will not be modified. Tomorrow’s day promises to be colorful and the cross-country test promises to be very decisive, which could be beneficial for our blueberries, for whom this test generally allows them to move up the rankings. The race will start tomorrow morning at 11.30 am local time and the British Wills Oakden will open the ball with his first mount Oughterard Cooley. The first French people to set off on the cross will be Gireg Le Coz and Aisprit de la Loge around 1:42 p.m. They will be quickly followed by Arthur Marx and Church’Ile who will start at 1:58 p.m. Arthur Duffort and Toronto d’Aurois, as well as Luc Château and Viens du Mont will do the same at 2:26 p.m. and 3:06 p.m.

The provisional classification

The starting order of the cross