Leonidas was off and running and, as always, ate up the Badminton course with his usual relish. He is not always copybook but this year he looked better than ever and gave Mark a great ride for 8.4 time and 10th place at the end of the day.
A very long wait until Mark headed out again on the big grey Kiltubrid Rhapsody. Raps was pretty green in Pau but he really came of age here and showed all his scope and ability to deal with everything that the coure threw at him. He gave an exemplary display of jumping and came home with just 5.4 time for 6th spot overnight.
Two in the top 10 is pretty cool!