 | Badminton Horse trials
LIVE on BBCi and this website, Saturday, 7 May |
Pippa Funnell leads the field at the Badminton Horse Trials going into Saturday's cross-country after a superb showing on day two of the dressage. Funnell and Primmore's Pride shot to the top of the leaderboard when they incurred just 40.9 penalties for their accurate performance in Friday's test.
Fellow Briton William Fox-Pitt is 1.3 pens back on 2004 winner Tamarillo; his day-one leader Ballincoola is in fifth.
GB's Olympic Champion Leslie Law is 7.1 off the pace in fourth on Shear L'Eau.
Law's other ride Shear H20 is 14.5 behind Athens team-mate Funnell down in 24th place.
Meanwhile, another Briton Francis Whittingham and Spin Doctor surpassed expectations to go third on their Badminton debut with just 46.7 for their display on the flat.
Jeanette Brakewell, another member of GB's Olympic silver-medal winning team in Greece last summer, is 14th on Over To You with 52.2.
Japan's Yoshiaki Oiwa and Dutchman Eddy Stibbe head the overseas challenge - they finished phase one in joint-seventh, 9.3 off the top spot.
Funnell's result will go some way to easing the disappointment of having to retire her dual Badminton champion Supreme Rock last week after the 17-year-old horse sustained a leg injury.
And she declared herself delighted with Pride's performance, though was characteristically critical of her own.
"I was going for the big marks and you have to be brave even if it means paying the price occasionally," she said of her aggressive test, which resulted in a break of stride on one of the extended trots.
"But he was super in his mind."
Badminton standings - day two (Fri):
1. P Funnell, Primmore's Pride (GB)
2. W Fox-Pitt, Tamarillo (GB)
3. F Whittington, Spin Doctor (GB)
4. L Law, Shear L'Eau (GB)
5. W Fox-Pitt, Ballincoola (GB)
6. M Healey, Zarzoo (GB)
MMIX
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