(upbeat music) - One of the most prolific classes internationally in the whole calendar has got to be the Blandin Palace International Horse Trials eight nine-year-old four-star shorts. And we have talked for years about just how good this class is and actually how it is the styles of the future. These are the championship courses of the future. These are the five-star winners of the future. It's one of those classes that actually every year gets bigger, gets better, and delivers. - Yeah, it has, it's absolutely been the breeding ground of top-class talent. And it just became a big target. There was always a need for it, I think, that idea, you feel a bit if you're bringing, particularly your eight-year-olds, but I think even with your nine-year-olds, if you're having to go and punch against some of those five-star horses, which look, you just have to at some stage of the season, but maybe when you're stepping up to five-star earlier in the season, you're thinking education first, but at some point you wanna sort of pit the youngsters, the emerging top-level talent, that's called them that, you wanna pitch them in against their own age group and see how they fare. And we had the likes of, you know, William Fox Pits and things like that when this launch back in 2009, you'd be piggy, March, you'd Mark Todd, you'd William Fox Pits and Andrew Nicholson, all winning it and dominating it. Then what's really happened in recent years is you've had a lot of more people coming over from Europe with the top international horses as well, and that's having an impact on the quality. Everyone knows about Blenham, this is not just a British thing, this is a global thing. We've seen good US horses come over as well, so it's the cream of the crop in terms of the youngsters. - It is, naturally, I think I refer to it as a championship, but it is an unofficial championship as such. We obviously have Lilian Dorje, which is the young horse world championships for six and seven-year-olds. We've got the British Five and six-year-old championships and the seven-year-old championships as well, other countries have something similar. This feels like, actually, it is the world championships for eight and nine-year-old horses. When we were chatting to the team at Blenham about, actually, this class and just how good it is and trying to put some context around it, and the five-star winner piece came up as to actually six winners of the eight and nine-year-old class at Blenham have gone on to win at least one five-star, in some cases, multiple five-stars, but a number of the graduates have gone on to win five-stars as well. So we thought we would dig a little bit deeper and look back on some of those incredible performances and the incredible horses, whose actually their careers have been shaped by their performance at Blenham. For many, it could be one of the first opportunities that they get a chance for a real kind of big main arena, big atmosphere, big crowds. As we go into this year's event, actually, we wanted to look back on some of those special performances, because this year, we are going to see the next special performance. So first of all, six five-star winners have come from the winners of the eight and nine-year-old class at Blenham. Sam, do you want to run down the list? I was going to do a pop quiz, but actually, you know them. So I feel like that's a little bit too staged. - Yeah, I don't know if I'll get them in the right order is the only thing. So Oslo, for William Fox Pitt, was definitely one. And I actually think he is the only one who went on to win the five-star in the nine-year-old year. So he went on to win Poe that year, I'm pretty sure. So I'm going to give you that. Quimbo, for Andrew Nicholson. He won Kentucky after winning here. And I think he did a bit of a treble. I think he went Blenham, Buckalo, Kentucky. That's a four-star short, four-star long, and then a five-star long, the following spring. So what's quite exciting, Nicole, is how quickly they back up and how quickly they tend to go on. Land Vision, he would have been one of the early ones. So I've definitely overlooked him. I'd say he was the first. Land Vision with Sir Mark Todd. He went on to win Badminton. Fairy DeAnimo, the flashy mayor of Janelle's. She went on to win LaMoulin, the great London 52, three-time five-star winner. You know, we've just got that bronze medal, double-team gold, what hasn't that horse done? Badminton winner, Poe winner, LaMoulin winner, multiple two-time Olympic team gold winner as well. What a horse. And then, Cooley Rosalind. So back to the kind of Quimbo, Oslo type. I actually think Land Vision as well was young when he won Badminton, that it doesn't take long. So that, because Rosalind won this last year and won Kentucky this year. So the trend still holds, Nicole. And we might not have to wait that long to see this year's winner go on and become a five-star great. - No one actually just picked up on a few of those going on the following spring to come out on a five-star land vision, did it? Kimbo did it, Cooley Rosalind has done it. And actually, she went after, she was very close to matching Oslo, who went on to Poe that same year and won Poe because she was in the lead at Maryland just a few weeks after she'd gone to Blenheim last year. As her final preparation run, she's actually in the minority as well, because she had already stepped up to five-star level. She'd been to LaMoulin last summer before she then went back to Blenheim as a nine-year-old. Then she went on to her next five-star in Maryland and she was very close to equalling what Oslo did and winning in the same year. But again, came back in Kentucky. What is it, Sam, in your opinion, as a rider, that means that we see these young horses then go on to excel? What does Blenheim give them in their toolbox for the future that will help them become the best? It's actually a very nice class by itself. The cross-country course is always very fair. So it's nothing that is maybe like when we talk about Aachen as a four-star short, that I would nearly describe that as a five-star short, if you know what I mean, that if they've done that, then they're a top-class horse to do it. This is actually-- the test itself is a lovely springboard. And I think that's important. So I think there's a lot of confidence that comes out of Blenheim, and I think that people should be trying to really embrace it and make it part of the calendar, because it's a very fair stepping stone for these horses. But what it brings to elements that I think are really important for the combination, for the horse and the rider as a combination. Firstly, the fact that sort of championship feel that you talk about, Nicole, the idea that this will have been a goal for people. The season would have been building up to it. And you've got to go there and deliver everything on one day. And just that, there's a skill to that. Getting your horse to peak performance on demand, that's what we're looking for. And that's what obviously you have to do to win a five-star as well. You've got to peak on the right day. But then the occasion of Blenheim, we know it's one of the-- if you had to say that we know there's a big two when it comes to five stars on British soil. And if you had to go to a big three, Blenheim is probably the one that slips in there. The atmosphere, the occasion, the backdrop of that amazing Blenheim palace in the background. The horses just know they're somewhere serious. And actually, when they go to a five-star having gone to Blenheim, they've been acclimatized. So you take a lot of boxes, I think, in terms of preparing a future champion. And then to win it, it just comes back to that championship thinking. It comes back to the quality. It comes back to the-- I think all of the riders we named, those six horses that went on. You've got Oliver Towne and Laura College, Andrew Nicholson, William Fox Pitt, Sir Mark Todd, Janelle Price. They don't get much better than those six in terms of riders. You're waiting for a Ross Cantor to go on and maybe do that one to the other. Piggy has won here a couple of times. She won the first one with Flying Machine. And she won here with Halo as well. Maybe we see Halo go on to five-star and do that. Good riders with good horses. That's not a bad recipe when it comes to going on to be successful going forward. I imagine there's a bit of a-- all of those riders that you mentioned have a competitive edge. And I imagine that they have this real-- I mean, I say competitive edge. Listeners, they're blooming competitive. These are some of the best riders in the world. But that championship accolade doesn't come around all too often. You obviously have the major championships, the Olympics, the Europeans' worlds. You have those young horse championships. And then this is kind of the next step of winning a class like this, has such a high profile. It's held in such high regard by other riders around the world because of its success, because of the horses that have come through it, because of the actually the role of honor of those horses that have won it, that they actually have this kind of real standing within the sport as well. And the victory holds a standing in the sport. Of those horses that we've talked about that have won the class, actually, a couple of them have gone on to win at one five star. The likes of London 52 haven't won one or two. They've won three. And let's be totally honest at this stage in their careers, because the series only started, what, 2009, I think, the first 89-year-old class at Lennon was. A number of these horses are still very much in their careers now. These are horses that could go on to win more and more five stars. I mean, if you look at the record number of five stars, I think LaBierstique Sam had six. Is that right? Yeah. And actually, London 52 is already on three, but he's got plenty left in the tank. Yeah, he could go on another Kentucky. Or it's going to be fascinating to see where he goes next season. And we could do a whole show on London and where he goes. And his kind of big rival chipmunk as well. But it does take us on to when you look at just the graduates, Nicole, and not just the ones that have won here at Lennon. It introduces other household names, like Balamour Class, three, five star wins, just like London 52, but 10 top fives at five stars. So to think that, you know, and it's the fun, you know, why do you go to an event to watch it in the flight? Like, what makes you make that effort to box off a weekend, you know, get the everything in order so that you can just get up and go and find somewhere to stay and do everything like that and actually go and enjoy. And again, take the full week off, to be honest. Like treat it like the Chelten Festival or something like that. And go and sit and watch two days of horses doing dressage. There's not, you're not going to do that every day of the week. And for events like Badminton and Burley, it's to see the history books, you know, getting one row longer and see who's going to join that. They're very, very special and like that is the end goal. I think there's something really fun about doing it at Blenheim because when you're watching these horses, you're going, OK, who's the next London 52? Who's the next Balamour Class? Who's the next Quimbo or Avery? Avery is a graduate here. So it's not just the fact that there are winners. Avery went on to win three Burleys having come from here. So, you know, you have everything. You have your championship horses, like you're in London 52, being a very good example. Even though he has one Badminton, he kind of takes a lot of boxes, that horse. But then you have your out and out five star horses, like your like your Avery's and like your Balamour classes as well. I'm going to Blenheim, spending the four days there and getting your eyes on these horses and kind of getting the notebook out as well. I'm thinking, right, this is where I think I'm going to see this horse. It just, it gets you really connected to the sport. And it'll give you a lot of fun for not just the next season or two seasons. For the next five to ten seasons, you'll be watching the sport unfold. And, you know, imagine if you had seen Balamour Class back in the day when he was here as a nine-year-old. And then you were watching him going on and winning Burley. You make a really good point, because they're not necessarily the ones that have won and then gone on to win five stars. Hugely impressive, but actually 26 of the eight nine-year-old graduates have gone on to win a five star. You just picked up on Balamour Class then. He finished, listeners. I love this. It's a really fun fact. In 2016, he finished in 36th place. He did pretty average dressage, clear cross-country, lots of time penalties, three down in the jumping. So he probably had lots of time penalties because he had three down in the jumping. He finished 36th, two places behind him that year in 38th place, Tom McEwen, and a certain Toledo Recursor, who did a good dressage, actually, were up there after the first phase, clear show jumping, and then had 20 penalties and a handful of time penalties cross-country. And those two horses went on to be passed from a British team in Tokyo, of course, three years ago, that took the first British team gold at an Olympic Games in 49 years. They made history, and they were actually well down the order. So they don't have to be the winners, Sam, for us to actually pick them out as horses that are going to dominate at the top level for years to come. No, and I just love those 26 graduates. Greenacre Special Cavalier is in there for Caroline Powell this year's badminton winner. But what I find really interesting, right, is watching riders how they approach this class, OK, because are they just using this as a stepping stone, or are they actually starting to press some buttons? And Caroline Powell is the ultimate five-star rider. She's a burly winner, back with Lenna Moore. She's a badminton winner this year with Greenacre Special Cavalier. She doesn't always take the handbrake off around the four-star shorts. But the clear inside the time rate at Lenna, eight, nine-year-olds is 6%. OK, so that is, you know, that is one in 16 horses making, the time is low, lower than normal. The clear show-jumping rate actually is only 27%. So whilst the cross-country jumping clear rate up at 77% is fair, like I said, you know, that's actually not the, it's not the most taxing bit of this, which I quite like, because I think it gives those horses the confidence, as I said. But the show-jumping is difficult and the time is difficult. But Caroline Powell has had eight runs in this class. And she's got a clear inside the time rate on cross-country at 38%, which is high and, you know, higher than a lot of riders. OK, you've got the exceptions, like Chris Burton, who had four runs in this class and made the time every time. And that is just quite exceptional to be four from four. But then you're looking at like an Andrew Nicholson who had nine runs and he was up at a 44% clear inside the time rate. So Caroline Powell is a rider and an example of a rider who, this is a championship. You know, I'm not going there to just mosey around. I'm going to be competitive. And I, again, that's what I love about a class, trying to figure that out and see who's there, what riders, how they approach it, what's their ammo. Piggy March is another one of those. You know, she's good in every phase here. And she's got four top fives to her name as well. So she could be, there's four riders that have had four top fives in this class. No one's had five top fives yet. As you say, it's still a relatively young class. But what do we think, you know, about 15 years of it here? There was the one year when it went in the COVID year, when it went away. Nicole, too, to burn a market. And actually, that was an interesting renewal of the eight to nine-year-old class because it had lordships, Graffalon had bands like Deloire, that great rivalry. So we'd have been including two more five-star winners, at least if we had had that addition and that renewal. But it wasn't at Blenham. It was everything was messed up back in COVID. But yeah, it's another interesting side to it. A, looking further down the field. And B, looking at the riders that really target this class as well. Let's pick out a few more of those graduates, because I think there's some none obvious ones that perhaps went to Blenham as part of their early part of their career and kind of went a little bit under the radar. Shane Rose's Virgil, a horse that has had so much experience, literally won pretty much everything there is to win in Australia, has been so many different five-stars all over the world, not Adelaide winner. But numerous top tens at other five-stars as well. He went to Blenham. Who else have you got? You've got Pauline Brocke from the same country, Nicole. So there's only two Aussies that have done the double. It was interesting. Bertos success in the class. Cooley Land was the obvious one that only only came third at Badminton. But was third at Badminton. He didn't do the Blenham five-star double. But Sam Griffith did. And those two are interesting. OK, no surprise with Sam Griffith. It's based on UK soil. But you can sometimes forget Pauline Brocke, that great Badminton, that heroic epic Badminton win. I want to say it's one of the unique ones. It was one of those days when, as a rider, there's some ways when it is so horrific that where you take off and where you land over those big 2.2-meter top spreads fences. And from where you take off to where you land can be about five meters sometimes. But with the wind and the rain, you literally get blown left or right. You can feel yourself moving in the air and you have no control over it. Neither does your horse. Those days are just absolute madness as riders. I love them. I absolutely love those crazy days. But anyway, so Brocke did that. And again, what I love about this, Nicole, is you have every type of five-star horse. Virgil, your warrior who's just been so consistent, he's been a championship horse and a five-star horse winning Adelaide. Brocke was your grinder. You know, the tough one, the kind of number one team horse. And then you're tough, you're a tough five-star horse. And then, yeah, let's go down through some of the other ones. I want to do it nation by nation. I want to go to the three French, Nicole. Because again, if you were doing a pop quiz, and maybe we should do a Christmas quiz and some of these will come out. But Piafta, I can't even say, isn't it? I used to be... Are you all right there, Sam? Are you all right there, Sam? Piafta, Benaville. I asked you a Nicola, there you go, I think I've just got it out. He was, again, okay, the five-star winner of Po, but remember him in Rio being one of three to make the time. And I think it was himself, Chris Burton and Michael Young. It was just one of those exhibition days. And, you know, again, for me, when I think of Asté Nicola at his best, you know, just that combination was there a more stylish and kind of reliable and exciting combination to watch in the sport. I don't think they're what, you know, I think that they were just such a class combination. Maxine Livio, Calla de Mer, and Romantic Love, then, for Gwendolyn for, as well. They were your three French ones. When you were touching on horses that had come, you know, different types of five-star horses that had one different types of five-stars, actually, you talked about a couple of the kind of the real warriors, but actually climbed up with great jumping performances. Molly Summel and Charlie Vanta-Heiden, who would be known for getting off to his five-star campaign and do a lot of his international competitions in the first phase with a very good start, he came through here. So another type of five-star winner. He's a LaMoulin winner, of course. The prices have had a good amount of success, actually. You've got, obviously, Janelle and her five-star winner, Fari Danimo. She also won this class on Cloud Dancer. She won it back to back in '14 and '15. Tim Price and her Skona M have come through this class as well. I think Andrew Nicholson has some three of his five-star winners all came through the Blana-Mate nine-year-old class. Who else is there? There's a really interesting German one on the list, actually, Ingred Klimka and Eszka Harder-Sam. Yeah, 100%. I remember, oh, Chipmunk must have come over for the long, with Julia Kressel. He came over for the long. And it's a good point that actually Blana-Mate is the place. We've got some really fun facts, and I'll find them out for a second because something like, is it 27% of the Olympic courses in Paris this year? So 17 of them in the field had previously been at Blana-Mate, all three of the individual medalists. So Fisher Chipmunk finished third in the fall long in 2017, which is the memory that you're referring to. Shadow Man, who was with Ben Hobday, was obviously with Chris Burton at the Olympic Games, who was 12th in the '89-year-old class back in 2018 with Ben on board, and then London 52 won the '89-year-old class in 2018 with Laura. So there's huge Olympic pedigree as well. It does bring up that question sometimes of dilution. And there isn't-- this is the opposite. Blana-Mate has so much history. It's always been there in the calendar. It just carries, yeah, so much history with it. And everyone wants to get there. And then you get those great form lines. Whereas if we spread things out a bit too much, and there's loads of options for places to go to do their four-star long or-- and again, I love this the '89-year-old championship, but it's interesting that actually the UK will only have two four-star longs. Are they adding a third? I'd heard rumors that maybe adding a third. But obviously with Blair gone, they've-- No, no, no, no, they're floors castle, which will replace Blair, will hold a four-star long. OK. So there will be three. There will be three. But there's only ever been three. There's going to be six this year in Ireland, four-star longs. And we're a much smaller country than GB. And just when you do dilute, you do lose quality. Whereas when you really build something special, which Blana has done for decades, and you build something with all of that history and all that prestige attached to it, the riders make it a part of their calendar. They really focus on us. They bring their top horses there. And that's what produces future championship success. And it's no surprise then to see not just the number of people at Paris, but the quality in their finishing position and the higher up the leaderboard. I'm sure the more condensed the proportion of Blana winners became. And yeah, Europe does travel over. In terms of riders that have targeted the eight nine-year-old class in the past, Izzy Taylor actually has the most starts. And the eight nine-year-old class, she has 16. She's got a 31% top five rate. That's how competitive she has been. She's had five top fives. I think of Blana, although, actually-- One of those would be an ARM. So actually four from 15, I would say. Tim Price has had a good number of runs there. Gemma Stevens, Sarah Bullemore, Caroline Powell, Janelle Price. Piggy March actually has targeted her horses quite specifically towards it. She's had some good success, obviously, won a couple of years ago with Halo and then Flying Machine, one of only a handful of riders to have won it twice. We're waiting for our first three-time winner, actually. And she could. I think her and Janelle are the two in the field this year that could do that, because the other two riders would be Chris Burton and William Fox-Bit, neither of whom, obviously, have a ride this year. But Piggy and Janelle do. So actually Piggy has a couple of very strong rides this year, which I'm excited to see. I think she's got a great chance. She's also going-- she's also bidding to become-- I mentioned the couple of riders on four top fives. Izzy is one of them to try and get her fifth top five. Piggy as well. Hers wouldn't just be top fives. It'd actually be podiums. She's had four podium finishes. If she can get the podium again, she'll become the first rider to get five podiums in this class. It's really impressive. When you think that, obviously, there's only one of them every year. And there's only been 14 of them. It's not that many. Very, very such a clinical rider. And yeah, I can't wait to see what she's going to pull out of the locker as well. That's the other-- if you're not for me, not being based in the UK anymore, and not being able to spot these horses when they're coming out at your ass and the walls, or your heart breeze or the words-- not being able to follow them on the season all the time, or they're on the calendar, and get eyes on them. Blenheim is just a big-- you can just mark off that weekend and be like, right, I am future superstar watching for these four days. What are we looking for, then, Sam? If we are going to Blenheim, and we are trying to spot the future to lead older courses, the future balance more classes, what should we look out for? You have a bigger divide than we've ever had in terms of your-- if you want to find the next London 52, then they're going to have to be these impressive, elastic, good movers, good jumpers, and then be able to use that stride that they'll probably have from being that athletic, that they'll be able to divert the cross-country ground, and they won't have any problems staying the 10-minute championship trip that you get these days. We saw only nine minutes in Paris. It might even be less again. It was eight minutes in Tokyo. I don't know what it will be in LA. It's hard out there, but again, it might only be a seven or eight-minute cross-country course. So that's your real, modern, loose, athletic, jumping, moving machine. And then you might just have to look a little bit outside of the '20s. Sometimes it's hard to get into the '20s. I mean, you see Ra's cantor and Lordship's Graflow, and what she's done with a horse who really gallops, and how she's been able to produce them to do the level test that we saw at Burley. But you look at how that horse trotted at Burley. He did not trot like that four years ago, or three years ago, when he was doing this type of a class. That is developed. So there you're looking for the much more kind of old school of a horse that looks like a galloper. They just look very comfortable. When you're looking at the Mon Cross country, they are going to be taking their riders. They're probably going to be saying, "Woo and steady more than anything else," because they're just real galloping machines. But they still have to be loose and athletic, and they still have to be able to jump. But they might, like I said, the clear show jumping right here is only 27%, one in four. That's quite difficult. Part of that is not necessarily because they will be building a full up to height four star short show jumping track. So it will be a decent track, but it's also a big occasion. It's a big arena for a young horse to go in. And you can forgive those horses a little bit more. You mentioned by the more class finishing mid-table. You can be more forgivable. They might look a little bit weaker in their frame. They might not have all the muscle there yet, like the thoroughbred types. They take longer to build that. They're not naturally as strong a horse as the warm blood horses. So it's a little bit like being at the Olympic Games and watching the sprinters, who are very, very strong, versus watching some of the long distance runners who are a much lighter framed athlete. And the lighter framed athlete is basically what the long format, the badminton burly winners are going to be. So they might still be a little bit like we call raw. They might be doing the odd late flying change because they're not strong enough yet to really sit in the canter and put out a nice clean flying change and have their back end engaged underneath them. They might make a little mistake in the show jumping as well. Again, that power to jump a big fence might not be fully developed yet. But you might look at them on cross country and go, they just look at home. They just look really, really comfortable out there. And you can put them in your notebook for that reason. I was just scrolling down the list of entries for this year. And I was trying to be so disciplined, Sam, by not launching into a big old preview because there is some seriously nice looking horses in horses that might have been on the radar through Leleon. Don J through the six and seven year old classes. And I often think an eight year old year is a slightly odd year for a horse sometimes, particularly as they go up the levels because they've got to the three star levels. They've maybe been to Leleon Don J, the three star long format. They're not necessarily ready for a four star long as an eight year old. And so it's sort of a consolidation year. And so sometimes they can have a bit of a quieter eight year old year. And actually the last eight year old to win this class was Willa Newton's Kaya 20 back in 2016, I think she won. Yeah, the year before Cooley lands and Chris Burton. So, you know, she won it back then. And other than that, it's mostly been nine year olds that have won it. Interestingly, actually, when we talk about EventRider Masters, which we have kind of touched upon as a, you know, the, it kind of messes with the data slightly because you've had a couple of four star shorts that have been run at Blenheim that haven't been eight nine year old classes. Upsilon, when he won the EventRider Masters class, was an eight year olds. And that was an unbelievably competitive class against much, much more established and older horses as well. So, you know, it's just interesting, actually, how they develop. And those horses that come here as an eight year old might be stepping up to the four star level for the first time they might only have one run and their belts. A few of them have sort of stepped up to advance this summer. Then you've got the nine year olds that sort of are using this as a final preparation, potentially before an autumn five star, or before going to a big book alone or something like that in the next few weeks. Some may even go to Maryland, who knows? But it's just interesting to see the different dynamic because it's such an important part of a young horse's career. But actually, it's a real kind of period of change and development because so much difference can be made in short space of 12, 18 months. - Can I throw in, I want to throw in a couple of name drops for horses who neither won a five star. I mean, they didn't win this, but they had a good result here and they were proper five star horses as well, okay? 'Cause we've done both. We've looked at the horses that won here and won a five star. We've looked at the graduates that went out to win a five star. Mr. Bass is a horse here. I cannot believe he didn't won a five star. Leonidas were marked out. I can't believe he didn't win a five. So, everybody had a good result here. And I'm gonna chuck him in Billy the Red as well. I think they're the best graduates that haven't made that big role of honor, but they were proper, proper world-class talents that we saw coming out of here. And then a couple to keep your eye on that I think could, I still think they have their best years ahead of them and I'm gonna be really interested to see what they do and they are graduates of this class. One is Julia Krebsky's nickel, 21. Again, didn't actually, I think was, were they leading and then had a hat came on stock at the water? Kind of one of those unlucky ones. - She was well, she was very well placed. Oh, was that? No, Nickl went well here. And Nickl completed it, it was Iroda country. - Oh, well then, yeah. - I think who fell in the water. Nickl then fell in the water at Buffalo. Couple of weeks later. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, well then. Okay, so Nickl keep your, obviously was at the Olympics for Team Germany. I think that's-- - Half in winner. - Yes, I can winner. I think that's a future five star winner coming from the graduates. In terms of the five star, like more like Chipotle and Brokka type or your Balamor class type, I think pump and circumstance for Portrait McCarthy. Keep your eye on that one. I love Cooley Snapchat. I think this horse could do anything at a piece of graduate. And then I would keep an eye on as well. We talked about the prices, but Jorilla is one to keep your eye on as well. So I think you've got a nice blend there, Nickl. I've given you some names that, some great graduates that never quite, that never quite got the proper headline. - I've got one, I've got one because it feels very topical because they had a lot of headlines for being one of the most exciting 10 year olds in the field at Burley this week. They finished 11th 12 months ago, Max Warburton's Deer Park revelry who were unbelievably impressive at their first five star at Burley. And that looks like a real Burley horse through and through. So they were a combination that were just outside the top 10 here last year. - There you go. - I'm ready. I feel ready for that. - Oh God, I'm so excited. I'm so excited. Listen as I hope you're excited as well because there are some really nice horses in the field this year. And there's a real mix of those riders that we perhaps are very familiar with here on British soil. Then you've got the international contingent as well. There's a lot of European riders coming over. There's a good number of French and German riders, Italian riders as well. The likes of Victor Levesque, you have got as your own robiné, you have got Lebesse Lubica as well for Germany, really talented young riders that actually you feel you're not just getting an opportunity to see the young horses of the future, but you're gonna see some of the young's sort of future superstars of the sport and future team riders for their respective countries as well. So looking forward to seeing how it all plays out. Couple of things for you listeners because I feel like we've whetted your appetite. And if you were on the fence about going to Blenham, get your notebook out. Maybe even if you fancy going wild by yourself a new notebook because there's nothing more exciting than a new notebook. It's September. Come on. - You are so mad. - That's a good note, but there's a good note, a good new notebook makes you feel good. But you can start your notes with the future stars that you are going to spot at Blenham Palace International Horse Trials this year. It is possibly one of the most beautiful venues that you will ever go to. It's just absolutely extraordinary. The palace itself is unbelievably impressive, but the parkland is completely beautiful as well. They have got absolutely everything going on. So not only are you gonna see the young stars, you're going to see some of the best riders in the world. You've obviously got the four star long format that we haven't really touched upon here, but has had some great winners in itself as well. That will be going on, but they've got the Chatham Pony Grant National, they've got falconry, they've got the big wheel. So if you want to take your kids, they've got lots to keep the whole family entertained. - What you do, if you want to take your kids, it's a bit like, don't they have like the dog and in badminton where you just leave your dog both of the day, you just put your child on the big wheel for the day, you go up and do the entire show. - Yeah, keep putting some tokens in, keep them going around, it'll be fine. And I would just say, if you like a picnic, you could get a Fortnum and Mason picnic, which I have to say is a really, really cool new addition. And I'm a big fan of, I know Sam, it's quite fancy, isn't it? Big fan of having sort of mainstream brands being brought into a venting. And that's the first time I've seen Fortnum and Mason in a venting, so that is very, very cool as well. And if you were like me, you could get a five pound ticket. I'm not saying like me because I don't want to spend any money on a ticket. I was going to say, if you're like me and I go shopping, you could get a five pound ticket on Thursday and Friday. - Yeah, you can use it so much. With your new, just please post on social media, if you are there on Thursday or Friday and you have a brand new notebook, because you're just by definition very like Nicole Brown at that point. And maybe you've splashed out and got a Fortnum and Mason's hamper or else you're just eating some of the other lovely food that's there. It's such a good day. - It's actually only talking the other day, Nicole, about my first trip to Blenheim. I was an age or nine year old person, not horse. I was around that age, I was around eight or nine. I remember walking the course of mum and thinking that my pony or one of the ponies at home would be able to jump some of the fences 'cause one of the tables, you know, some of those tables and they have like a picnic table that you got to jump the whole thing obviously in one boat, I thought it was like a step. I thought you jumped up onto the seat and then up onto the table and did one stride. And then went down the other side. I liked the tables were that big that I thought, "Oh, you did." And I was like, "I think Thunder could do this." And anyway, it turned my mum and I was such a bad rider. I'm sure many people are sitting around, but I had no hope. I showed no potential as a young kid. So the fact that I actually did manage to ride around there a few times was a bit of a miracle. I think if you'd, there were big aspirations, but I hope, yeah, you know, again, it's just such a nice family day. I first discovered frozen yogurt when I was there as well. - I always remember. So we, cause I grew up as regular listeners of the show will know just down the road from Blenham. So it was a proper, proper local for me. And I remember my mum coming to pick me up from school and we would go in to watch the first horse inspection. It was like a bit of an after-school treat. And I remember being so excited. And one year for whatever reason, my mum had gone on dressage date and hadn't taken me because I was at school. And I was absolutely mortified. And she bought me from one of the craft stores, this beautiful foal that was made out of chocolate. It was like a chocolate mold of a foal. Now I love chocolate, but I also thought that the foal was so cute and I didn't want to eat it. So I left it in the fridge and looked at it for about three months, but it didn't last listeners because it went past its best. So not only did it go past its best, I didn't get to eat it either. So, you know. - We've just moved house. - We've just moved house to call. And someone sent sparks a white chocolate pony called Sparkle, because I was just sparks and sparks. And we love white chocolate. And I remember looking at this thing for, I mean, a year being like, can we eat that? I mean, you know, on a day when there is no chocolate in the house, you know, like, what has happened? Where's my drug here? I need my sugar. And this is the only thing. It's like this thing that sits on the mantelpiece. Is this white chocolate pony? And the amount of times I wanted to eat it anyway, I just got immune to the fact that it was there in every kind of point. And then as we were moving house, I noticed it's like three years out of date. Like, imagine chocolate going three years out of date. So, yeah. I still tempted to open it and give it a bite, but I didn't, it went in the skip. - By that point, the moment's passed, doesn't it? And you kind of think, well, last of this log. Anyway, listeners, we have digress-- - There's a tangent. - Yeah. - If you're going to Blannon, one, we'll pop the link to tickets in the show notes to make it nice and easy for you to go and get your tickets. Two, if you get your new note pad, please tag us @aventingpodcast. Send us a message. We'd love to hear from you. I'd love to know if fellow stationery geek, if there is one out there. - Can I ask you if you would go, if you're old school and you want to go to Nicole's notebook, you can do Nicole's notebook. If you're techy and you want me to build like an equirating tracker or something like that. So, you can actually track courses on your mobile phone and get their stats and stuff like that. Obviously, if we get enough requests, we'll build anything at equiratings if you want like a tracker or something like that, 'cause I'm getting into my app building. Now, I've built Star Chaser for the jumpers. I need to build, I'm gonna rebuild a venting manager, I think, in the off-season. That's gonna be my off-season project, 'cause I can do all this stuff now. - Sam, you're such an overachiever. Like, you're a five-star event writer. You've ridden at the Olympics and everything else, and you also can just randomly build apps in your spare time. - I'm up-skilling. I couldn't before. I was only ever like a back, I was only ever like an analyst. I was only like a spreadsheet kind of person, but now I'm getting into this stuff. Anyway, tangent. So there we go. - Last thing I would say. - Last thing I would say on that engagement point is if you go to Blenham and you see your stars of the future and you write them down in your notebook on your phone or whatever you do, please share them with us. We want to know who you think the stars are coming out of Blenham, eight and nine-year-old class this year. Let us know. We'll keep watching them over the coming months and years. Sam, it has been a pleasure. Listeners, I hope you've enjoyed a little insight into actually just what makes the eight and nine-year-old class so good at Blenham Palace international horse trials. We've touched upon it a few times, but actually this hopefully puts it in context as to how impressive that role of honor is. We will have lots coming up for you over the next few weeks. In fact, we've got some really fun shades in the pipeline, yes. So stay tuned and we've still got a couple of five stars before the end of the year as well. Watch this base for now. Thank you as always for tuning in. We'll be back soon with more. Thanks, Sam.
