Chris Bartle, who left Burghley last autumn with a European team gold medal even though he had executed an unscheduled flying dismount across country, made the best possible amends yesterday by winning the Mitsubishi Motors trophy with the Irish-bred Word Perfect II.
Overnight leaders Mark Todd and Broadcast News lowered a fence in the show jumping to drop to second, ahead of America's Bruce Davidson and another Irish export, Eagle Lion.
The 46-year-old Yorkshireman, whose time at Badminton has been split between training six other riders and trying to ride his own horse, was handed a hefty slice of luck following the elimination of overnight 13th, Charlotte Ridley and Mistatiger, who left out the gate three from home on yesterday's show jumping track.
Bartle seemed momentarily destined for a similar fate when he too turned to bypass the gate, but yells from the crowd alerted him to the danger and he swiftly rerouted Word Perfect, going on to clear the final three fences for a mere half a time fault to become the oldest winner at Badminton - by just four days - and record the first British win at the Gloucestershire event since Ginny Leng's victory in 1993.
Todd, who rode the 15-year-old Broadcast News to claim individual gold at last year's open European championships, had taken the overnight lead with a stunning cross country round on Saturday, when the 36 clears had included all four of the Irish riders, boosting hopes that the team could be building up for a good showing in this year's World Equestrian Games in Rome.
Lucy Thompson's planned pathfinder, Welton Romance, had to be withdrawn on Saturday morning due to ovarian problems and is due to be examined by fertility expert Twink Allen in Newmarket today before a decision is made about diverting the mare to Punchestown this week. But Romance's half-brother, Welton Molecule, put the smile back on Thompson's face by galloping to a superb cross country clear for overnight eighth, a position he held in spite of a single error yesterday.
Eric Smiley and the wonderful veteran Enterprise were even more impressive across country, finishing 14 seconds inside the time to share the lead for a substantial portion of the day with Olympic champion Blyth Tait and Aspyring. The pair were eventually relegated to equal ninth by the close of play on Saturday, but while Tait yesterday held onto ninth in compensation for his fall at the Irish Bank with Ready Teddy, Smiley mirrored his 1997 result by dropping to 12th with two down in the show jumping.
Irish Patriot (Mark Kyle) and The Yellow Earl (Virginia McGrath) also gave immaculate displays across country to hold onto 26th and 33rd places going into the show jumping. Despite knocking two fences yesterday, Badminton debutantes Irish Patriot and Mark Kyle moved up to 23rd, while The Yellow Earl's three mistakes still allowed a similar ascent of the placings to 33rd.
