Caroline Powell celebrates her victory on Greenacres Special Cavalier on day five of the Badminton Horse Trials. Photo / Getty Images
Caroline Powell celebrates her victory on Greenacres Special Cavalier on day five of the Badminton Horse Trials. Photo / Getty Images
Caroline Powell has become the fifth New Zealander to win the prestigious Badminton Horse Trials, 14 years after capturing her first five-star event.
Powell and Greenacres Special Cavalier completed a clear round of showjumping to finish with 43.2 penalties across the three disciplines, enough to secure the title after sittingsixth going into the final day.
Powell joins Sir Mark Todd, Jock Paget, Andrew Nicholson and Jonelle Price in completing the feat. Ireland’s Lucy Latta on RCA Patron Saint was second in her Badminton debut with Great Britain’s Alexander Bragg riding Quindiva in third, both finishing two penalty points behind Powell.
Overnight leader and compatriot Tim Price dropped five rails to finish eighth behind wife Jonelle in sixth. Zara Tindall, niece of King Charles, finished in 15th.
“I wasn’t ready for that,” said 51-year-old Powell after her victory.
“I thought third place would be great, but to win – wow. It’s awesome and it means so much – I’m not in my youth and just to get a horse to this stage is difficult enough, but to win – I can’t believe it.”
“Dreams like this don’t usually come true for people like me – it is unbelievable,” the bronze medal-winning London Olympian added.
Powell’s previous best finish at Badminton was fourth in 2009 on Lenamore, the horse she went on to win Burghley the following year.
Caroline Powell celebrates her victory on Greenacres Special Cavalier on day five of the Badminton Horse Trials. Photo / Getty Images
As other combinations followed Powell in the showjumping, she couldn’t watch as she moved slowly up the leaderboard. William Fox-Pitt in his last Badminton added 24.4 penalties to slip from second to 13th aboard Grafennacht along with co-leader Price who had 20 jumping faults.
Just three combinations managed to go clear and inside time in the showjumping, with Powell coming home with five seconds to spare in her 16th completion at Badminton.
Powell and 11-year-old Cav, as the Irish-bred mare is known at home, have previously finished fifth in the five-star at Pau (2022) and sixth at Maryland (2023).
It was heartbreak for Tim Price and Vitali who slipped from the lead to eighth place after losing his stirrup later in the course.
“Man, that is disappointing,” he said. “That’s going to hurt, and he has been going so well. It just wasn’t to be.”
Once the rails started falling, Price said the horse had “kept tanking” and they’d been rattled.
He was quick to congratulate Powell on her win.
“She has been in the mix so many times. She’s a fantastic jockey and always has been. It’s a great day for the sport.”
