There was a fairytale ending to the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials when New Zealander Andrew Nicholson and his delightful grey gelding Avebury made history with a third successive victory at this always challenging British CCI****.
When Sam Griffiths of Australia and Happy Times—second after the cross-country—hit two fences to drop a place to third and Oliver Townend dropped from overnight third to eighth with an unfortunate four rails down on Armada, Nicholson was left a two-rail breathing space over Jock Paget of New Zealand and Clifton Promise who had jumped an immaculate clear that was to bring them up into the runner-up spot.
However, Mark and Rosemary Barlow’s intelligent grey Avebury seemed to know exactly what he had to do, and Nicholson coolly kept him in the perfect outline and rhythm to jump clear with just 2 time faults.
“I can assure you that I didn’t feel that cool!” said Nicholson, who admitted to feeling the strain. “He’s a good jumper but I knew I’d got to keep calm and confident. It was tempting to speed up at the last two fences, because I knew I was heading for time faults, but I decided to stay in a rhythm because I really wanted to win with a clear round.”
He added: “This isn’t just about me, it’s about the team at home—I’m just lucky enough to ride the horse. I’ve had a bad year—I shouldn’t have fallen off at Badminton and then I really wanted to win a medal in Normandy and didn’t—so I’ve put myself under a lot of pressure. Winning this means an awful lot.”
With a clean show jumping round, U.S. riders Marilyn Little claimed 20th place on RF Demeter, the highest-placed American. Allison Springer finished just after her in 21st after two rails aboard Arthur.
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Nicholson also sprang into a bonus fourth place in the FEI Classics™ series, although William Fox-Pitt’s position at the head of that leaderboard never looked in doubt. His fourth place at Burghley with a beautiful clear jumping round on Bay My Hero was enough to clinch the title for the fourth time since the series began in 2008.
“It was fantastic to win again,” said Fox-Pitt. “It’s all down to my horses. Seacookie got it off to a great start at Pau last year and Bay My Hero was brilliant at Kentucky. But then I had a fall at Badminton and withdrew Cool Mountain at Luhmuehlen and it was all looking a bit patchy. The FEI Classics™ is a great addition to our sport.”
Three horses were withdrawn before the jumping phase including, unfortunately, Hannah Sue Burnett’s Harbour Pilot, from seventh place, and one was eliminated at the final horse inspection, first-timer Roo Fox’s (GBR) Fleet Street.
There were 14 clear jumping rounds from the 38 finishers, with Australia’s Murray Lampard finishing best of the 17 first-timers in 10th place on Under the Clocks.
About the Burghley winner
Andrew Nicholson of New Zealand, 53, has long been acknowledged as one of the most hard-working and naturally talented horsemen in eventing. The current world No. 2 first came to England 34 years ago as a 19-year-old to work with racehorses. His first CCI4* was Badminton in 1984 where he earned a place on the first ever New Zealand Olympic team, at Los Angeles.
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He went on to ride at five more Olympic Games, winning team silver in 1992 and team bronzes in 1996 and 2012, where he finished fourth individually on Nereo. He also won team gold at the FEI World Equestrian Games™ 1990 on another horse owned by Rosemary Barlow, Spinning Rhombus.
Andrew has won numerous CCIs—this is his fifth Burghley win, and his third in a row on Avebury, following victories in 1995 on Buckley Province and 2000 on Mr Smiffy. He has also won three other CCI4*s: Pau in 2012 on Nereo, Kentucky in 2013 on Quimbo and Luhmuehlen in 2013 on Mr Cruise Control.
His fifth Burghley win equals the record of Mark Todd (NZL) and Ginny Elliot (GBR). New Zealand riders have won Burghley 13 times since 1987.
Andrew is married to Wiggy, who rode Avebury as a novice; he has two adult daughters, Rebecca and Melissa, and two young children, Lily and Zach. They live near Marlborough, Wiltshire.
