Lausanne (SUI), 3 September 2011 – William Fox-Pitt (GBR) has the slimmest of leads to win a record sixth Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials (GBR), second-last leg of the HSBC FEI Classics, after a thrilling day’s cross-country.
The day was a spectacle of bold riding and flying horses, and Fox-Pitt gave an early masterclass on the New Zealand former racehorse Parkland Hawk, winner of the Blenheim CCI3* last year but short on mileage this year.
Fox-Pitt, who said Parklane Hawk felt as if he had “grown wings” when launching into space off the precipitous drop at the Leaf Pit (fence 4), commented: “It’s a good course for a genuine horse. It was massive all the way, but you never expect a holiday at Burghley.”
Fox-Pitt, who warns that Jumping is Parklane Hawk’s weakest phase, cannot afford an error in tomorrow’s Jumping phase, for the cost of a single rail covers the first four horses after Cross-Country.
“I’m going to enjoy the moment because anything could happen tomorrow,” he said.
New Zealanders Andrew Nicholson, on Avebury, and last year’s winner Caroline Powell on the foot-perfect veteran Lenamore are second and third, ahead of HSBC FEI Classics leader Mary King on her home-bred mare Kings Temptress.