Lucinda Wins Badminton 2007
Lucinda rides Headley Britannia into the record books. Under Lucinda’s careful training Headley Britannia has made history in becoming the first mare to win both the Badminton and Burghley four-star titles.
And, while her Burghley win took some 33 years to come after Maid Marion took that title in 1973 under Capt. Mark Phillips, Badminton has had to wait some 56 years to see Headley Britannia achieve the same feat as Margaret Hough’s mare, Bambi V, who took the title in 1956.
But Lucinda and Brit are unique in being the only partnership on record to win Burghley in the autumn of one year and come out the following spring to take the Badminton title.
This is a phenomenal achievement – especially given the best a gelding can offer in recent history is Andrew Hoy’s ride, Moonfleet, who took the Burghley title of 2004 but needed a full 18 months to recover before taking the Badminton title of 2006.
Leading the event from start to finish is also a rarity – and, although it is the third year in succession that this has occurred, typically the winner has come from the second day of dressage when judges are usually deemed more generous.
Olympic dressage rider, Carl Hester, commented on Radio Badminton that people who hadn’t seen Lucinda and Brit’s test kept asking him if it really deserved to be so far ahead on the first day, and to stay ahead to the end of the second but that he said, “It was hard to fault - Lucinda ensured they had to give her good marks for every movement as it was performed so precisely and that’s the difference between a good test and a great one.” and that her flying changes were way above anyone else’s.
And it was for a flying change that Lucinda thereby scored the only ‘10’ of the competition.
But when three of the first four out on the cross-country course fell it became clear this was not to be a dressage test. The course appeared the biggest in living memory and the ground a significant test.
However Brit appeared to love every second of it, fighting Lucinda to get at each and every fence.
However Brit appeared to love every second of it, fighting Lucinda to get at each and every fence.Knowing the agility of her mount so well, Lucinda opted for a couple of longer routes but turned on a sixpence to be just two seconds outside the optimum time and keep ahead of her nearest rival – albeit by only 0.2 penalties.
The whole of Badminton fell silent as they entered the arena, now with a fence in hand after her nearest rival, the incredibly talented Winsome Adante, a three-times winner of Kentucky CCI****, lowered a pole.
But in the blustery conditions, Lucinda prevented Brit from storming around the course and just kept her under control. One slight tap lowered fence 10, and the triple that had caught out so many before her still lay in wait but thankfully they cleared this and the last to thunderous applause from the audience.