Six horses have been withdrawn from the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials (4-7 May), with three weeks still to go before the event.
The latest withdrawal is from Britain’s Nana Dalton, who decided it was in the best interests of Abbeylara Prince to pull him out.
“He is in top order and has proved that he’s right back on form after his spell on the sidelines, but on balance we feel that doing the world’s biggest event in less than a month’s time might come a bit soon for him,” wrote Nana on Facebook. “Big credit to his lovely owner Margaret Peet for your continued patience, understanding and support — a bummer (to say the least!) to miss out this year, but hopefully by taking our time with this special horse now, we’ll have lots of fun and success for many years to come in the future.”
Two other British horses have also come off the start list — Jodie Amos’s ride Wise Crack and Pamero 4 (pictured), one of Laura Collett’s two entrants. Laura is still due to start on Grand Manoeuvre.
Brazilian competitor Carlos Parro has withdrawn his Rio ride, the retrained racehorse Summon Up The Blood, and two Irish riders have also pulled out. They are Sarah Ennis with BLM Diamond Delux and Michael Ryan with Ballylynch Adventure.
Horses down to seventh on the wait-list have now been accepted into Badminton — one more than withdrawals. This is because one of the horses coming off the wait-list, Xavier Faer, is ridden by Tim Price and Tim also has two horses on the accepted list. He can only actually start on two of his three horses, so the total number of starters was unchanged when his wait-list horse was accepted, therefore another wait-listed horse was accepted at the same time. It is likely Tim will start on Bango and Xavier Faer, as Ringwood Sky Boy is entered for the US four-star at Kentucky the week before Badminton.
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More eventing news:
Zara Tindall heads to Rolex Kentucky: find out when she will ride
Four-star rider breaks same leg twice in six months: ‘It’s so frustrating’
Kirsty Short’s Badminton first-timer blog: ‘I’m sitting on one of the most amazing cross-country horses in the country’
The other horses accepted off the wait-list are: Matelot Du Grand Val (Jean Teulere, France), Balladeer Durban Hills (Sarah Parkes, Britain), Kadessia (Caroline Chadelat, France), Sportsfield Othello (Joseph Murphy, Ireland), Ballycahane Flower (Dominic Furnell, Ireland) and Xavier (Gubby Leech, Britain).
US rider Holly Payne Caravella has withdrawn Never Outfoxed from the wait-list. She is entered for Kentucky.
