Kirsty Chabert proved the perfect cross-country trailblazer at the MARS Badminton Horse Trials, putting in a superb round on the mare Classic Vl to come home clear and show her fellow competitors how well Eric Winter’s course was riding.

Next up was Oliver Townend on the wonderful Ballaghmor Class, the pair showing all their experience to come home with a handful of time penalties (4.6). It was their 13th consecutive five-star clear cross-country round, the first pair to achieve such a record for nearly 20 years.

Gemma Stevens riding Chilli Knight [pictured] was the first to crack the optimum time of 11 minutes 40 seconds with a superb round as she rose from 10th place to soar into the lead in the early stages of the competition. “What a round – I’m not going to lie, that was cool,” she said delightedly.

It was no surprise when Harry Meade, the only rider to achieve the optimum time at Kentucky a fortnight ago, romped home with no penalties on Superstition, a horse that he finds is best reserved for the big occasion – he hasn’t run across country since Burghley last September.

Bubby Upton had another excellent round on her long-time partner Cola, and there were clears for first-time overseas riders Senne Vervaecke (Belgium), Jerome Robine (Germany), and Ryuzo Kitajima (Japan).

There were run-outs with their first horses for Tim Price and Joseph Murphy, plus Tiana Coudray, Arthur Marx, Joe Meyer, a horse fall for David Doel and Galileo Nieuwmoed at fence 26 and Kylie Roddy’s bad Badminton luck continued when she tipped off SRS Kan Do at fence 4. Tom Rowlands pulled up his first horse, Quintilius, after a run-out at the seventh fence, Chinese competitor Alex Hua Tian, who heroically survived a near unseating at fence 17, retired, and Portuguese first-timer Manuel Grave was eliminated for three refusals.