Rough Ride for Aussies on XC Day at Badminton

It was a true day of Badminton ‘thrills and spills’ on Saturday with only 49 cross-country completions from 81 starters across the tough track built by new designer, Eric Winter.

Unfortunately three of the Australian riders Shane Rose, Paul Tapner & Andrew Hoy were all eliminated. Hoy and Tapner returned from the course with their horses uninjured.

However, Shane Rose’s Shanghai Joe has sustained a suspected fractured shoulder after falling at fence 19. After the mishap “Nugget” got up and as he galloped back to the stables fell on the bitumen and slipped into the arches of Badminton House.

The Shane Rose Eventing team has confirmed that the Thoroughbred gelding is resting in the care of the veterinary team and that more scans will be performed in the coming days to properly assess the extent of the injury and treatment required.

Leaders after the dressage, Chris Burton and Graf Liberty received 20 points at fence 15 the Hildon Water for a run out, dropping them back to 19th position on 69.2.

Sam Griffiths on his wonder mare Paulank Brockage, arguably one of the best four star horses in the world, received 50 penalties at fence 10 under new FEI rulings. Officials deemed the horse's shoulder failed to pass over the jump as it was flagged. As this jump was then not represented to, they received the penalties and dropped back to 40th position.

Griffiths Eventing Team called out to social media followers in the afternoon on a search for video footage from the alternate angle of the jump to prove their case but this did not turn up any evidence.

Andrew Hoy and Rutherglen had a solid run in good time until fence 19b where they received 20 penalties putting them back to 34th.

Additional Australian eliminations were Paul Tapner on Bonza King of Roughes who had a nasty fall at the first water, both walking away uninjured and Tapner later naming the fall ‘acrobatics’ on twitter.

Andrew Hoy fell off his second ride for the day, The Blue Frontier, after a fluid round up until the brush corners fence 21, causing elimination from the competition.

Ingrid Klimke and Horseware Hale Bob Old moved up from second place to first, with only 3.2 time penalties. This positions Klimke only 0.4 penalties behind Michael Jung, leaving no room for error in the show jumping tomorrow with Klimke on a bid to be the first woman to win the event in a decade.

Results thereafter position New Zealanders as strong contenders for a place, representing four within the top 10.

Standings after the cross country:

1. Ingrid Klimke GER (Horseware Hale Bob) 39.6 pens

2. Michael Jung GER (La Biosthetique Sam FBW) 40

3. Andrew Nicholson NZ (Nereo) 40.4

4. Tim Price NZ (Xavier Faer) 48.2

5. Mark Todd NZ (NZB Campino) 50.4

6. Rosalind Canter GB (Allstar B) 54.5

7. Oliver Townend GB (ODT Ghareeb) 56.2

8. Alexander Bragg GB (Zagreb) 57

9. Mark Todd NZ (Leonidas II) 58.1

10. Yoshiaki Oiwa JPN (The Duke of Cavan) 58.2

**Condition report updates on Shanghai Joe will be posted on the Equestrian Australia website and social media platforms as soon as they come to hand.