Piggy March and Vanir Kamira win Burghley

2017 and 2019 runners-up Piggy March (GBR) and Trevor Dickens’ 17-year-old mare Vanir Kamira are 2022 Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials Champions.

The pair lowered one show jump in Sunday’s final phase to complete on 27.0 while a clear round elevated Burghley debutantes Tom Jackson (GBR) and Sarah Webb, Patricia Davenport and Millie Simmie’s Capels Hollow Drift from fourth after cross-country to the runners-up spot on 32.5. Tim Prize (NZL) and Joe and Alex Giannamore’s Vitali rolled three poles but their score of 38.5 was still good enough for third.

“Hallelujah!” exclaimed an emotional Piggy after her round. “I’ve been through a rollercoaster of emotions today but the main one I’m feeling now is relief. Vanir Kamira (AKA Tilly Bean) so deserves this – to win at Burghley is so special and I’m delighted that she will have her name on Winners Avenue, she absolutely deserves it and this is what dreams are made of.”

By Piggy’s own admission Tilly is not always the most reliable of show jumpers, and she was fearing the worst after the mare lowered an early pole: “I think we rubbed virtually every fence,” she said, “we usually do! Good horses were having two or three down in there so I had assumed we would too but she was just phenomenal.”

29-year-old Kent-based Tom Jackson is a former Young Riders European team medallist and one of several riders at this year’s Burghley who trains with Pippa Funnell:

“I don’t quite know how to sum up this week to be honest,” he said. “I’m absolutely over the moon – Capels Hollow Drift is pure class and to have delivered like he has over the last few days is just phenomenal and makes my life very easy. If I’m honest I came here thinking we were capable of a top-10 finish but to be on the podium is beyond expectations.”

Capels Hollow Drift is an 11-year-old Irish-bred Irish Sport Horse and has been ridden by Tom since a seven-year-old.

Tim Price was naturally slightly disappointed but philosophical about Vitali’s performance: “He’s not God’s gift to show jumping,” he admitted, “but I think we’ll get there – he’s got the ability, I just have to find a way to get it out.”

Tim’s wife Jonelle was fourth with Classic Moet on 40.2 after rolling two poles.

A stunning clear round from another pair of Burghley first-timers was enough to move Alice Casburn (GBR) and her mother Caroline’s homebred Topspin into fifth place on 40.2. The pair has had an outstanding year, finishing 19th at Badminton in the Spring and then collecting an individual bronze medal at this year’s Young Riders European Championships:

“I’ll remember this for the rest of my life,” she confessed. “To jump a clear round like that is mind blowing.”

Dressage leaders Kitty King (GBR) and Vendredi Biats were sixth on 42.2, while clear jumping rounds yesterday across country and today in the show jumping arena moved Richard Jones (GBR) and Alfies Clover up from 22nd after dressage to eventual seventh on 42.4.

Double clear jumping rounds apiece from Pippa Funnell (GBR) and Billy Walk On, Tom Crisp (GBR) with Liberty and Glory and Cornelia Dorr (USA) and Daytona Beach 8 rewarded them with eighth, ninth and tenth places respectively.

Sarah Clark and LV Balou Jeanz.

© Michelle Telato Photography

Congratulations to Australians Sarah Clark and LV Balou Jeanz, who travelled to the UK with the aim being to contest their first Burghley Horse Trials. The pair not only made it to the finish line, but came in at an impressive 22nd place at a event renowned as one of the toughest on the calendar.

Full results here.

More on the Burghley first-timers below…

Eleven first-timers cross the finish line

Showjumping faults came thick and fast for many of our remaining first timers.

Not for Tom Jackson and Capels Hollow Drift though, who smashed it out of the park with an immaculate clear round to climb two places to the runner up spot. Tom features in the main ‘end of event’ wrap, but suffice to say, one of his first comments was: “I think I might come back again!”

Alice Casburn and Topspin were equally impressive moving from eighth up to fifth with another foot perfect clear, while American rider Cornelia Dorr and Daytona Beach 8 climbed from 16th to 10th with the final first-timer clear round.

Alice, the youngest competitor this year at just 20-years-old, said: “I was really nervous today, and the fact that Topspin is such a good jumper actually made it worse. My heart was thudding when I saw all the people around the arena, but the whole Burghley experience has been incredible.”

Cornelia was equally delighted. “I don’t have the words for it yet, to be honest. If somebody had told me at the start of the week that I’d be in this position today I would have told them they were crazy. This result has given me so much confidence for the future.”

Corvett, ridden by Emily Hamel and CMS Google under Kristina Hall-Jackson hit one rail apiece for 20th and 25th but the rest of the Saturday survivors fared less well.

Wills Oakden (Oughterard Cooley), Sarah Clark (LV Balou Jeanz) and Hollie Swain (Solo) each had three fences down, finishing 13th, 22nd and 28th respectively. Bubby Upton (Cola III), Padraig Mccarthy (HHS Noble Call) and Phil Brown ( Harry Robinson), lowered four poles apiece for 14th, 19th and 27th.

Source: LRBHT press release

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