Oliver Townend living the dream

The Ellesmere-based world number one – a bronze medallist at Badminton a week earlier – came top of Chatsworth’s showpiece CCI4 class aboard Mark and Angela Chamberlayne’s home-bred Dreamliner.

He was deceptively quick across country on the 12-year-old, Jumbo-sired grey gelding, finishing nearest the optimum time of six minutes five seconds and incurring only two time penalties.

“He’s a very genuine horse,” said Townend. “Chatsworth is a very good event for setting you up for something big, and hopefully this will have been the perfect preparation for Luhmuhlen [five-star event in Germany] next month.”