Winners crowned in Voltaire Design Badminton Grassroots Championships

It was an action-packed day at the biggest event on the amateur eventing calendar with fierce competition at Badminton

 The championship, which took place on 3–4 May, is the goal for many grassroots eventers around the country and the atmosphere was electric as competitors took to the coveted cross-country course on Wednesday.

Katherine Illingworth had the thrill of a lifetime winning the Voltaire Design Grassroots Championship (BE100) held at Badminton on Philip Adkins’ Ballinoecastle Q, a seven-year-old by Obos Quality.

Katherine, 27, who’s as head girl for Philip’s Cadenza Eventing yard in Northamptonshire, added nothing to her dressage score of 29.5 to finish 1.5 penalties ahead of Hannah Taylor, who has a threefold career as an engineering student, part-time rider, and pet portraitist, riding her own Legaland Best One. Katie Stephens-Grandy, a farmer and photographer from North Yorkshire, was third on Trendy Magic Touch.

Katherine was quick to pay tribute to her employer, when asked about the event she said: “The atmosphere’s fantastic, everyone helps you, I’m very lucky to compete Philip’s horses and I can’t thank him enough. He’s put a lot of work into my riding.”

Siobhan Heneghan won the BE90 championship on her mother Lisa’s Mermured Promise, an 11-year-old, Irish-bred, iron-grey gelding. She finished on her dressage score of 28, 1.5 penalties clear of runner-up Laura Gibson, a veterinary physiotherapist, on Sally Hayward’s Gortglas Moonshine. Third was Megan Elphick on her own Jamelia.

“This has been the best experience ever,” said Siobhan, a 20-year-old trainee accountant from south Oxfordshire. “I just wanted to come here and have a nice time – I never expected to win!”

British Eventing’s chief executive, Helen West, said: “Having the Voltaire Design Grassroots Championships at Badminton is absolutely key to British Eventing, it’s the pinnacle for our grassroots members and it’s our crown jewel. In competing here today many of our members have achieved a lifetime ambition, and that’s very, very special.”

For the full results, visit www.eventingscores.co.uk

Photo credits: © Badminton Horse Trials Limited