“I can’t believe it—to lead from the front and win—it’s unreal,” said an emotional Lucinda Fredericks after winning the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials with Headley Britannia. After the second-placed American pair of Kim Severson and Winsome Adante (Dan) took two poles out, Fredericks' mare—the first to win Badminton for 56 years—had two fences in hand. Despite some heart-stopping moments, Fredericks used remained at the top of the leaderboard and won her second four-star event, which produced a special Burghley/Badminton back-to-back.

”The pressure got to me,” admitted British born and bred Fredericks who now rides for Australia. “I knew she’d be difficult today, and I had a few lucky moments out there, but so what? She jumped, and that’s what counts.”

A clear round brought the German combination of Andreas Dibowski and the mare FRH Serve Well, who were fourth after a clear round in cross-country, up to second place to produce another unique Badminton result—never before have mares taken the one-two. The daughter of Hanoverian sire Sherlock Holmes added nothing to her dressage score.

The dream was so near for American Badminton first-timers Severson and Dan, but it ended several places away after Dan kicked out two poles down the final treble. The eight faults dropped them one place to finish in third place.

Australian Matt Ryan and Bonza Katoomba, 18th after dressage, found themselves moving up 12 places into fourth after the good-looking British-bred produced a clean sheet over the fences.

Lord Killinghurst ridden by Andrew Nicholson, who now has the unique record of 26 completions under his belt, once again found himself in the top six moving up to fifth above Hinrich Romeike and Marius Voight-Logistik, while New Zealand's Joe Meyer on Snip found themselves finishing in seventh. Nicholson also brought the 11-year-old Henry Tankerville, who like the winner was sired by the British stallion Jumbo, to eighth place.

In a cosmopolitan result Sarah Cohen and Hide and Seek II were the Best of British in ninth, while British veterans Jeanette Brakewell and Over to You ended a particularly emotional and final Badminton in 14th place and put themselves in the record books for the greatest number of completions, seven, for one combination.

Other Americans that finished were Gina Miles aboard McKinlaigh in 15th and Jan Byyny aboard Task Force in 36th. This was the first Badminton Horse Trials for both Miles and Byyny.
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