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Reigning Eventing World Champion Yasmin Ingham and her championship mount Banzai du Loir, have set a new personal best dressage score of 20.5 to take the lead after two days of dressage at Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials. They have also set a new record for the best dressage score ever posted at Blenheim in the events 14 year history.
After a season of ups and down, they had a blip across the country at both Kentucky in the Spring and the European Championships in the summer sandwiching a historic first British win at CHIO Aachen in June, Ingham wanted to end the season on a positive note so the team decided to head to Oxfordshire to sign off the horses 2023 season.
Although the main aim of this weekend’s event is to tick the qualifying criteria box for next summer’s Olympic’s, Ingham is no stranger to the top of the podium at Blenheim. Her and Banzai won the long format class in 2021, and were also winners of the 4* short class for 8+9 year olds held at Burnham Market in 2020 (normally held at Blenheim). In doing so, they were the first pairing to win both classes back-to-back.
Ingham said after her test yesterday: “…He was really rideable and soft, and I felt like I could ask for more from him than usual, because usually we’re a little bit on the edge of maybe a slight explosion. It definitely always feels a little more fragile than it looks, but today it didn’t feel fragile at all, which is a really great feeling.”
Sitting just behind Yasmin in second place, in recently crowned European Champion, and Badminton Horse Trails winner, Ros Canter on Izilot DHI on 21.6, with Gemma Stevens on Jalapeno III on 25.6 in third.
Cross Country starts at 11:30 tomorrow morning, and show jumping in reverse order of merit will take place on Sunday.
