Equestrianism: Fox-Pitt aims for double

William Fox-Pitt must have an excellent chance of gaining his second three-day event victory in consecutive weeks when he rides Midnight Dazzler and Ballincoola at the Blenheim Petplan Horse Trials that begin today in Oxfordshire.

For most of the summer Midnight Dazzler was level pegging with Highland Lad, the nine-year-old gelding who was Fox-Pitt's winning mount at Burghley on Sunday. Because there was so little to choose between the form of the two horses ("both are a bit mad and fantastic jumpers"), Fox-Pitt had been in a quandary as to which one he would ride in Burghley's four-star contest.

In the end, he chose the younger Highland Lad, partly because he had been riding him longer. That left the 12-year-old Midnight Dazzler, who was 12th at Burghley in 2000 when ridden by Darrell Scaife, to take a step down by competing over Blenheim's three-star track. Fox-Pitt's other mount, Ballincoola, is coming from the opposite direction, having won the two-star section of the Burgie Horse Trials in June.

The withdrawal of Pippa Funnell, who had entered Walk on Star, leaves Fox-Pitt as the only Blenheim competitor who is part of Britain's three-day event squad for the World Equestrian Games, which begin next week in Spain.