Jonelle Price has won the 2018 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials and is the first female in 11 years to take the title.
‘Lady luck’
Jonelle had a fence in hand going into the final phase – and although Classic Moet rattled a fair few fences, they managed to leave all the poles in their cups to jump clear.
“I certainly had lady luck on my side, but sometimes you need a bit of luck,” said the New Zealander. “Classic Moet deserved a big one. I’m pleased for her; she’s been a phenomenal mare.”
Jonelle and Trisha Rickard’s little black mare climbed up the leaderboard from 22nd after the dressage, when they produced the fastest clear on the cross-country. Another clear in the showjumping saw the pair finish 5.1 penalties ahead of Oliver Townend, in second place.
Elite
“Being a CCI4* winner is an elite club to join and it’s been something that has eluded me for a while now, so to now join it – especially here at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials – is very, very special,” said Jonelle.
What makes the 37-year-old’s win even more special is she gave birth to her son, Otis, less than 10 months ago.
Oliver had two horses in the top five, which ended up swapping positions after the showjumping. Ballaghmor Class slipped from second to fifth with two rails down, while Cooley SRS moved up from fifth to second after jumping clear.
‘Fight harder’
His second place put him just out of contention for the Rolex Grand Slam, but Oliver was pleased with his horses.
“If you’d have told me I’d have two horses in the top five at the end of this week I’d be very, very happy,” said Oliver. “I’ve had to fight harder than I’ve fought before and it didn’t always look like I wanted it to look, but both horses have come out of it feeling very good.”
Ros Canter lowered one rail on Allstar B to finish the third, while Gemma Tattersall and Arctic Soul jumped their third clear in a row at Badminton to come fourth. Mark Todd, who was the oldest rider in the field at 62, was sixth on Kiltubrid Rhapsody.
Don’t worry if you missed the live action as we are showing highlights on Saturday 12 May at 8pm on Horse & Country TV and Amazon Video.