‘THIS WAS VERY WELL RIDDEN’

WHILE Angela Tucker, the judge at C and president of the ground jury, and Sandor Fulop, the judge at M, gave Mark Todd and Kiltubrid Rhapsody the highest marks — in Hungarian Sandor’s case equally with Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class — Ernst Topp, judge at E, favoured Germany’s Andreas Dibowski (FRH Butts Avedon, pictured).

“The horse isn’t the best mover, but Andreas always had him in front of him,” said Ernst, who was keen to point out that it had nothing to do with their shared nationality.

“He was consistently on the bit, the nose was a little forward, the flying changes were in the right place and on the aids. It was very well ridden — as was Mark Todd’s test.

“There were a good collection of tests at the top, although perhaps we were missing one that made us think, ‘Wow’.”