Badminton Cancelled

By Staff Report April 30, 2012

The Mitsubishi Badminton Horse Trials have been cancelled for the first time since 1987 due to rain and flooding. The CCI4* eventing competition had been scheduled to take place May 4-7 in England.

The news comes as a major disappointment to British eventers preparing for the 2012 Summer Olympics, as well as for countryman William Fox-Pitt, who was attempting to win the third leg of eventing’s triple crown, formally known as the Rolex Grand Slam.

The Rolex Grand Slam ― single-season victories at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials in September, the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event in April and Badminton in May ― comes with a $350,000 bonus. It hasn’t been achieved since fellow Brit Pippa Funnel won all three events in the 2002-2003 season. Riding Parklane Hawk Fox-Pitt won at Burghley and Rolex Kentucky.

Organizers said there was “no chance” the soggy turf would dry out in time for the event next week. “I don’t think it will majorly affect the Olympic preparations though. We had contingency plans in place but we will have to discuss them with the riders and the owners first. We will make those plans over the next 48 hours,” British performance manager Yogi Breisner told London newspaper The Telegraph.

Most of the British Olympic eventing team seems a lock, with William Fox-Pitt, Mary King, Piggy French and Nicola Wilson the top contenders. There remains one open slot in the five-person lineup, and Zara Phillips, daughter of U.S. eventing coach Captain Mark Phillips, was expected to make a case at Badminton for why she and new mount High Kingdom are worthy of an Olympic ticket.

Now much of that action will be rerouted to the CIC3* Chatsworth Horse Trials in Derbyshire May 11-13.

As for Fox-Pitt’s le Slam Grande, organizers are now considering whether to allow a consecutive win at Burghley (Aug. 30-Sept. 2 in Stamford, England) to sub in for Badminton.

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