Oliver Townend... this boy wants to win!. Express Eventing Millenium Stadium 2008 Photograph:Jan Milne

Lucy Wiegersma and Shaabrak, were 2^nd and won £50,000. In fact the Brits took 1^st 2^nd and 3^rd place in a tough competition in which only 6 of the 19 starters completed the event.  Over half the field was eliminated on the show jumping or cross-country phases.

William Fox-Pitt and Ballincoola finished third a couple of seconds behind Lucy and pocketed £20,000.  Australia’s Clayton Fredericks and Ben Along Time finished 4^th.

Oliver and Flint Curtis did a great dressage to music test to go into the jumping phase well placed. Flint was in a class of his own, flying round foot perfect to be the fastest time of the day by 40 seconds.

Considered to be the equivalent to cricket's Twenty20, the invitation-only competition offered total prize money of 250,000 pounds. It compressed the traditional outdoor three-day event into a five-hour indoor spectacle in a bid to boost the sport's popularity, and attracted close to 14,000 people.

The idea is to enable spectators to stay seated out of the weather and view the entire event in a condensed space and time-frame. 

It was a day of ups and downs.  Bettina Hoy (GER) riding her seasoned champion Ringwood Cockatoo was leading after the Freestyle Dressage and as the jumping was run in reverse order of the Dressage results, was  last to jump.  Perhaps put off by the tragic loss of Mary King’s Call Again Cavalier who fell on the cross-country, Bettina retired on course.

Although there has not been an official statement yet it is believed that Call Again Cavalier broke his femur at an apex and was put down.  The beautiful 16-year-old gelding by Cavalier Royale was in the bronze-medal winning British team at the Olympics earlier this year.

New Zealand's Mark Todd, whose mount Gandalf put a hole in a cross-country fence that could not be rebuilt said the "big, testing" course was too difficult for most of the horses on their first outing at such an event.

Results

1st Oliver Townend (Flint Curtis)

2nd Lucy Wiegersma (Shaabrak)

3rd William Fox-Pitt (Ballincoola)

4th Clayton Fredericks (Ben Along Time)

5th Vittoria Panizzon (Rock Model)

6th Caroline Powell (Lenamore)

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