Izzy Taylor set a new record today for the best CCI4*-S dressage test ever performed at Burgham International Horse Trials. Irish statistics company EquiRatings confirmed that her score of 21.2 on Monkeying Around beats the previous record of 22.4, set by Gemma Tattersall (Chico Bella P) in 2015.
Nine-year-old Monkeying Around, who is owned by Izzy and Mark Sartori, won the six-year-old class at the young horse world championships at Le Lion d’Angers, France, in 2017.
Izzy said: “He was super today – he’s getting stronger and more rideable, so I can be a bit ‘braver’ in the arena on him, and there’s still loads more to come from him. “Burgham’s team have done an amazing job to get this event running, and the number and the calibre of riders here speaks for itself.” Izzy leads CCI4*-S section M by an impressive 6.3 marks from New Zealand’s Jesse Campbell (Diachello).
Watch Izzy’s Interview following her record breaking test
World number one Oliver Townend is in the lead in CCI4*-S section L on his 2017 Burghley winner Ballaghmor Class, owned by Karyn Shuter, Angela Hislop and Val Ryan. The pair scored 21.4, so were a fraction of a mark outside of Izzy’s new record themselves. Second are Piggy March and Brookfield Quality on 23.1.
Oliver said: “It feels very good to be back out competing. I love it here – the organisers do a top-class job and we’ve had a great start in terms of ground and the preparation from the organising team. For me, it’s as good as any event in the world.”
Oliver also holds pole position in CCI3*-S section J on Sally-Anne Egginton’s Cillnabradden Evo with a score of 26.7, and is currently both first and second in CCI3*-S section K with Tom Joule’s MHS King Joules (24.5) and Paul Ridgeon’s Miss Cooley (26.1). Laura Collett is at the top of CCI2*-L with 24 penalties on Moonlight Charmer, owned by Charlotte Heber-Percy and Teresa Stopford-Sackville.
Burgham – the first international horse trials of the 2020 British eventing season – has received an exceptionally large number of entries of a particularly high quality, and action continues on Friday (21 August) with international dressage, showjumping and cross-country.
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