For most of the cross-country round at the Defender Burghley Horse Trials, Sarah Bullimore and Corimiro looked every bit the pre-event favourites. The horse jumped cleanly, the round held together, and the pair were still in touch with the top of the leaderboard after a dressage score of 33.6 had left them sixth overnight. Then came the one fence that changed everything: the last one.
That is what made the result so striking. This was not a round that unraveled through repeated mistakes or a major loss of rhythm. It was, by all accounts, smooth and largely error-free until the closing stages, when Corimiro fell at the final cross-country fence and Bullimore was unseated. In one moment, a strong Burghley challenge became a frustrating finish.
The scale of the disappointment is easier to understand when set against the expectations around the pair. Before the week began, EquiRatings gave Corimiro a 21% win chance, which was enough to make the 10-year-old the pre-event favourite. That was not hype for hype’s sake. It reflected a horse and rider combination with proven five-star form, including top-10 finishes at Pau and Badminton, and the sense that they had the speed and consistency to be right in the mix again.
A round that almost held all the way home
Bullimore said afterward that Corimiro was “amazing” up until the final fence, although she also noted that he got “a bit strong coming for home.” That detail matters. The last section of a cross-country course often asks as much about composure and rideability as it does about boldness, and Bullimore made clear that she had to keep bringing him back in a few places.
She also described a key moment after the second-to-last fence, saying they had a “lovely shot” there before turning toward a final question that was not fully visible from the approach. By then, the horse knew he was close to the finish and, in her words, “went a little bit numb” and decided to keep going. Bullimore tried to come wider to create room and shorten him, but he would not really turn.
That sequence tells the story better than any bare result line could. Corimiro did not lack bravery. If anything, he was perhaps too keen for his own good at the end, and that made the final fence the decisive test. In eventing, the finish line can become a trap if the horse is still running on adrenaline.
The bigger picture is not that Bullimore and Corimiro were exposed as pretenders. If anything, the performance reinforced why they were viewed as serious contenders in the first place. Their dressage put them in the frame, their cross-country round looked controlled for almost the entire course, and their prior five-star record suggested this was a combination capable of handling championship-level pressure. But Burghley, as ever, punishes the smallest lapse at the wrong moment.
So the result leaves both clarity and frustration. Clarity, because the pair again showed they belong at the top level. Frustration, because a mostly excellent round ended one fence too soon. And in a sport where margins are measured in seconds, strides and angles, the final fence at Burghley was enough to turn promise into what might have been.
