Mary King and Star Appeal clear The Daily Churns in fine style. Seconds later they were stopped on the course

Mary was held on the course, just before the Centre Walk, two Aintree type hedges at Fences 22 and 23, for quite a while whilst Tina Gifford was attended to by the doctors and paramedics. Mary commented, "It was a nice fence to be held at and the wait probably helped Star Appeal, but not me! I kept on thinking about the Centre Walk, getting going again, and worrying about how many strides I would go for!"

Heidi Antikatzides, fourth after dressage, also fell heavily at The Beer Garden and was taken to hospital as a precautionary measure. This is not the first year that the Beer Garden has caused particular problems at the end of the day and it may be possible that as the sun moves around it produces shadows that confuse the horses at the point of take off.

Greece's Heidi Antikatzides leaps The Charisma Pond on Michaelmas

It was not to be Heidi's Badminton. Released from hospital, she attended the final trot up to present her second ride, Fairfax. Although Fairfax passed the Ground Jury's inspection Heidi was then told that she would not be allowed to show jump and complete the event as the medical panel had stood her down due to her fall.

The only horse to fail the final horse inspection - rather unfortunately, many onlookers felt - was Nigel Taylor's ride, The Frenchman II.

Clear rounds in the show jumping were to prove very elusive as the course was twisty and the optimum time seemed particularly difficult to attain. Only nine of the sixty remaining horses jumped totally without fault. Laura Jennings, competing at Badminton for the first time was perhaps the most unfortunate rider in this phase, although Tristram Owers gave her a run for her money.

Laura, who was lying in thirty-seventh place, was totally wrong-footed as she approached the treble and as she and Timewatch travelled through the combination it became obvious that they were not going to stay together. Poor Laura was forced to retire with just two show jumps between her and completion! Tristram did complete his first Badminton, but Riverdance, who is not renowned for his show jumping prowess, sadly exceeded even Tristram's worst fears. The pair lowered eleven poles and dropped a very depressing twenty-five places to eventual forty-second.

At the top of the leader board, Caroline Pratt produced a wonderful clear round within the time allowed which enabled her and Primitive Control to climb to eventual sixth place.

Australia's Brook Staples hails a cab as he enters The Lake on Master Monarch

Australian Brook Staples performed the same feat and climbed from ninth to fourth place, making him and Mr Attwood's talented nine year old, Master Monarch the highest placed debutantes.

Louisa Lockwood had three fences down and dropped from tenth to twelfth place but she still took home two awards - the saddle given to the highest placed British rider under twenty five years and The Silver Jubilee Plate awarded to the highest placed owner-rider.

And so to the top five: Mark Todd, competing in his final Badminton before 'retiring' to his native New Zealand, maintained fifth place on Eyespy and later said that he couldn't have wished for a better finale to his twenty year stay in England.

Rodney Powell managed to keep Rex and Marguerite Boucher's Flintstone balanced and fluent through Jon Doney's demanding course and although they had one fence down they maintained their fourth place and were eventually to rise to third. Eighteenth after dressage, Flintsone had enjoyed an impressively faultless cross-country round and could not have failed to have attracted the selectors' eyes.

Continues........

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