Burghley looms as New Zealand recover from nightmare in Normandy

As if there was not enough motivation already heading into the Burghley Horse Trials in Britain this week, a poor showing at the world championships has raised the stakes for New Zealand’s three-day eventing team.

Andrew Nicholson is gunning for three consecutive Burghley wins, Jock Paget and Clifton Promise return to the place where their year from hell began, and now you can add redemption to the list after the Kiwi team fluffed their lines at the World Equestrian Games in France. Only Motueka’s Jonelle Price, who finished fourth on Classic Moet competing as an individual only yesterday, and to a lesser extent Andrew Nicholson, who was ninth on Nereo, emerged unscathed from the nightmare at Normandy after a brutal cross-country day when Tim Price (Wesko) and Mark Todd (Leonidas II) were eliminated and Paget (Clifton Promise) retired.

Having claimed bronze four years ago in Kentucky, the Kiwis made a good start in traditionally their weakest discipline to be second after the dressage, only to fall apart on the cross-country, the phase they usually thrive in.

The cross-country cut the field from 90 to 59, thanks to dreadful conditions underfoot, and despite two fences being taken out.

Equestrian Sports New Zealand high performance coach Eric Duvander took aim at the conditions rather than his charges. ‘‘The ground conditions were terrible,’’ said Duvander. ‘‘It was beyond what it should be . . . at a championships, it shouldn’t be like that.’’

But for a dropped rail in yesterday’s final showjumping phase, Price would have won a medal. She was a member of the bronze medal winning team at the London Olympics but was omitted from the WEG team on form and was only a late callup for the individual event after the withdrawal of Caroline Powell.

Still, it was the 33-year-old’s best performance at the top level.

‘‘But when you get that close to the medals, you can’t help but think of what could have been,’’ she said.

She is confident the horse, in just its second four-star start, is only going to get better. She fired a cheeky shot at the selectors: ‘‘That’ll teach them for leaving me off!’’

Nicholson was the most high profile casualty among the top 10.

His expensive three fences down on Nereo meant he slipped from fifth to ninth overall.

A classy one-two from the German pair of Sandra Auffart and Michael Jung in the individual section gave Germany the teams’ gold medal.

They both had clear rounds to slip ahead of Britain’s William Fox-Pitt whose one showjumping error cost him the title. He finished third, while Britain were good enough to claim silver in the teams section.

Burghley, the final four-star event of the season, starts on Thursday night (NZ time).