Christopher Burton takes dressage lead with Graf Liberty at Badminton

Australia's Christopher Burton and Graf Liberty produce a stunning test to take the lead after dressage at Badminton, fourth leg of the FEI Classics^™, in a day of top 4* Eventing action that saw a complete change at the top of the leaderboard.

Australia’s Christopher Burton produced a typically elegant display to lead the dressage phase at the 4* Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials, fourth leg of the FEI Classics™, with the outstanding mark of 32.9 on the 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse Graf Liberty.

The only riders to have bettered Burton’s score in Badminton’s 68-year history are fellow Aussie Andrew Hoy with Darien Powers in 2000 (30.8) and Britain’s Pippa Funnell on Supreme Rock in 2002 (31.6).

"I’m so proud of my horse. I can’t believe it. I deliberately didn’t push him too much at the start of the week – I didn’t even get on the horse until Wednesday afternoon – as I have been known to overdo it on him before, but he worked in better and better and to come out of the arena with a 32.9 is fantastic. I’m so happy."

Ingrid Klimke (GER) and Horseware Hale Bob close second ahead of Jonty Evans (IRL) and Cooley Rorkes Drift in third.

Riders are looking forward to tomorrow’s cross country course, variously described as ‘massive’, ‘imposing’ and ‘needing total concentration’ with a mix of excitement and trepidation. Britain’s Izzy Taylor sums it up: ‘Eric [Winter, designer] has handed the responsibility to the rider, which is the right direction. I think we’ll be looking at some different results tomorrow.”

The final day of dressage saw some strong performances from several Australian riders.  Australians placings after dressage:

1             Chris Burton       Graf Liberty        32.9

11           Sam Griffiths      Paulank Brockagh            42.5

15           Paul Tapner        Bonza King of Rouges     43.9

16           Andrew Hoy       Rutherglen         44.0

51           Shane Rose        Shanghai Joe      51.7

78           Andrew Hoy       The Blue Frontier             60.0

Cross country starts tomorrow from 11:30 am local time.

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06/05/2017 - Burton reigns in Badminton before tough Cross-Country Day

06/05/2017 - Christopher Burton takes dressage lead with Graf Liberty at Badminton

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