British eventing star Oliver Townend is confident that fatigue will not be a factor as he bids for a career-defining win and potential £230,000 payday.

With the travel chaos caused by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud, he has undertaken a 51-hour journey from Shropshire to reach Kentucky in the US.

After wins at Badminton and Burghley, he hopes to earn success and seal the Grand Slam this weekend.

"It's been a difficult journey but I am putting that behind me now," he said.

The Yorkshireman left his Shropshire base on Sunday and undertook the epic journey involving three flights, two train journeys and three car rides, including a £1,600 taxi fare from Paris to Madrid, where he boarded a Miami-bound holiday charter flight. He then travelled on for 1,000 miles in the US to make it to Kentucky.

This is an event to relish, and I am determined to do the very best I can for the team back at the yard, my owners and all the people who support British eventing Oliver Townend

Townend's horses arrived in the US last week, before the flight problems wrought by the ash cloud rising from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland.

"I was glad to see and ride my horses after my torturous trip. They are in great nick - I was very impressed by how well they are," said the 27-year-old.

"I don't think I have suffered from the long hike to Kentucky. People who work with horses are used to long hours, early mornings and late nights.

"A lot of families with young children have been going through worse than me with the travel chaos."

Having already won Badminton and Burghley last year, the £230,000 Grand Slam will be Townend's if he can add Kentucky to his title portfolio, which starts on Thursday and ends on Sunday evening.

Townend travelled some 6338 miles to make it to Kentucky

"Having ridden the horses and talked to my assistant here, we are now feeling very positive about the competition ahead," said Townend.

"This is an event to relish, and I am determined to do the very best I can for the team back at the yard, my owners and all the people who support British eventing."

With flights stranded in the UK and abroad, Townend caught a train from Shropshire to London, where he boarded a Paris-bound Eurostar.

After arriving in the French capital, he took a taxi to Madrid - a 14-hour journey - before boarding a US-bound holiday charter flight late on Monday, and then making his way from Miami to Lexington in Kentucky, some 1,000 miles north through Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.

606: DEBATE What do you think of the lengths Oliver Townend has gone to to achieve his Grand Slam dream?

"I got to Paris and I knew that I had to persuade someone to drive me to Madrid," stated Townend.

"I just thought 'Yorkshire's not that different to French', so I grabbed a bloke and explained that I had to get to Madrid. This is the biggest moment of my career so far and the biggest event of the year."

The Grand Slam is one of equestrian sport's most coveted prizes, and has only been achieved once before, by Pippa Funnell in 2003.

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