Fox-Pitt splashes to victory at rain-soaked Badminton (From Gazette Series)

Fox-Pitt splashes to victory at rain-soaked Badminton

A DECISION to continue at Badminton in terrible conditions paid off for William Fox-Pitt at the weekend as he won the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials Trophy.

Fox-Pitt put himself in contention following the dressage with Moon Man in 15th place and Tamarillo, who was second at Badminton in 2002, in joint second, with Pippa Funnell on Cornerman.

New Zealander Andrew Nicholson, who performed the last test of the two days, produced an outstanding display with Lord Killinghurst to take a commanding lead going into the cross country.

Paul Tapner from Australia, riding his own and Sarah Smith's Highpoint, finished in ninth after the dressage. He said: "Although we haven't competed here before Highpoint is a local horse and has done quite a lot of his work on the Badminton Estate and I reckon I know the park quite well now."

Torrential rain added to the challenge of the cross country, which caught out many of Britain's top riders, including Leslie Law and Karen Dixon.

Fox-Pitt had an early start on Moon Man, who was running well until The Platform at fence 29, when the horse ran out of steam. After a second refusal he took the decision to retire.

With a late start on Tamarillo, the horse he hopes to take to the Olympics, William only decided to run when a decision to lengthen the time allowed on the steeple chase was taken by the ground jury.

The pair gave an exemplary display of fluent and rhythmic jumping, with only one heart-stopping moment at the third log pile in Huntsman's Close, to put them in the lead after two days.

Afterwards he said: "After I had to pull up on Moon Man, I wasn't even going to get on Tamarillo. He proved he is an amazing horse despite the conditions. He gave me the most fantastic ride. I couldn't have asked for more.

"Moon Man had just had enough, he had done his best and there is always another day."

Dressage leader Andrew Nicholson completed a steady round to finish in second place.

He said: "He is a horse who doesn't have a lot of stamina which is why he prefers firm going but we couldn't have done anything about that today and he gave me 110 per cent. He did what he had to do and that's all I could have asked for."

Gatcombe-based Australian rider Andrew Hoy, who finished the day in third, said: "Mr Pracatan was fantastic in the wet ground. I did plan to take some longer routes but I think it's better to think I should have gone straight than to look back at a mistake. The going at the fences was good and held up well. The going in between the fences was not so great but that was out of the course designer's control."

Pippa Funnell's bid for a third title ended with two falls at the same fence. Viceroy II caught a knee at Fence 21, The Gate, going into Huntsman's Close, ejecting her out of the saddle. She rushed back from hospital to ride Cornerman, but made the same mistake, and retired after jumping the Australian Wine Garden fences.

Paul Tapner and Highpoint kept their place after the cross country, with a clear round in worsening conditions. But with four fences down and eight time penalties in the show jumping the combination dropped down to 25th place.

Going into the show jumping phase, Fox-Pitt had less than one shop jump between himself and Nicholson, and it was clear the show jumping would be as influential as the cross country.

But when the latter had two fences down and two time penalties, it gave Fox-Pitt breathing space. He needed it too, when Tamarillo lowered the third fence, hit a rail at the seventh without it falling and collected another four penalties at the last. But it was enough for the Dorset rider to take his first Badminton title.

"Tamarillo is an incredible horse, though he usually keeps the rails up," said a delighted Fox-Pitt. "We didn't have a good start when fence three fell and I thought 'this is not going to plan.' But he kept his cool and now I can't believe it - winning here is an incredible feeling, though it's been a long time coming. It is the one event everyone wants to win."

Andrew Hoy lowered three fences in the final phase, dropping to fifth in the final standings, while Bumble Thomas on The Psephologist, 14th after dressage, rose to take third place.