10 of the greats

Popadom

OF all the Burghley winners, Lorna Clarke’s skewbald cob with the hogged mane was surely the most unlikely. His mother pulled a dray.

“When it came to buying him as a youngster, his new owner, Jennifer Harrison, had to haggle with Chipperfield’s Circus, which was desperate to have him,” says Lorna.

In the end, Jennifer purchased Popadom for £40 and the gelding soon found his niche eventing.

At the time of his Burghley win in 1967, he was certainly not Lorna’s first string. But he was quickly promoted when he jumped one of only half a dozen penalty-free cross-country rounds over a tough course that wiped out more than half the field.

Merely-A-Monarch

THE first of the 12 horses who have won both Burghley and Badminton was Merely-A Monarch, who took the inaugural Burghley in 1961, aged six. On this occasion and winning Badminton the next spring, he was more than