Pair in Badminton crunch

Local hopefuls Polly Stockton and Claire Phillips are heading down to Badminton in Gloucestershire this week to take on one of the world's greatest equestrian challenges.

They will be in action at the 2007 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton three-day event from tomorrow, one of just four top four-star competitions in the world.

Polly, 33 and from Malpas, will ride both Regulus and Tom Quigley.

Regulus, the 11-year-old bay Thoroughbred she rides for York owner Anne Henson, will be making his second appearance at the event they all wwant to win. And the pair will be hoping for a better final phase this time, as several show jumps down last year saw them slide out of the top 30 after a great clear cross- country.

Tom Quigley, also owned by Anne, will be making his Badminton debut but already has four-star experience after finishing seventh at the Rolex Kentucky three-day event in 2006.

Both horses have looked in good form this season with Tom Quigley finishing eighth at the Witton Castle one- day event in Durham and Regulus jumping a good cross-country clear at Belton Park.

Polly has just returned from this year's Rolex Kentucky in America, where this time she partnered the 17hh chestnut Tangleman.

The pair lay second after the opening dressage phase with a great performance but then suffered a disappointing run out on the testing cross-country course to slip down to 18th.

Just one fence down in the final show jumping phase pulled them back up into a creditable 13th place overall.

"It's a long trip to make but worth it because Rolex is an amazing event, and they take amazing care of the riders," said Polly.

Claire, from Overton-on-Dee, will be taking the 16.2hh chestnut horse Ginger Charlie to Badminton.

The pair finished 50th there last year, after one unlucky stop cross-country, and have been enjoying a god preparation this time.

"We finished second in the Advanced Intermediate section at Somerley Park one- day event in Hampshire, where Ginger Charlie produced a nice enough dressage test and went very well cross-country," said Claire.

She is competing at Badminton for the fifth time and finished just outside the top 30 in 2003 on her home bred horse Capuchin.

"He then went well again at the Burnham Market CIC in Norfolk, finishing fourth, so I couldn't have asked for a lot better preparation."

Claire started eventing the horse in 2001 for owners Gary and Susan McCormack, who bought him originally as a hunter through Cheshire show jumper Keith Shore.

Ginger Charlie has also twice completed Britain's other four-star event at Burghley, jumping clear cross-country on both occasions, and Claire should be in for a good ride.

Badminton gets underway with two days of dressage tomorrow and Friday, with competitors tackling Hugh Thomas's famous cross-country course on Saturday and the final show jumping phase on Sunday.