Ros Canter won Badminton for the second time in 2025 on Lordships Graffalo, taking the title by one penalty when Oliver Townend lowered a rail.
Ros Canter, part of Britain’s gold-winning team at the Paris Olympics, won the MARS Badminton Horse Trials for a second time. The event ran at the Badminton Estate in Gloucestershire from Wednesday 7 to Sunday 11 May 2025.
The 10th Duke of Beaufort started the trials in 1949 in the park of his own house. British riders had nowhere at home to prepare for international competition, and he had the ground.
Badminton is one of only seven five-star events in the sport, the top grade the international federation awards. Horses pass a dressage test, then cross fixed timber over the estate’s ditches, banks and water at speed, then jump a course of poles.
Oliver Townend and the grey mare Cooley Rosalent led from the dressage onwards and went into the final jumping in front. Canter, second overnight on Lordships Graffalo, her 2023 winner, jumped clear and inside the time.
Townend, last to go, then lowered a rail and finished second, one penalty behind. Ireland’s Austin O’Connor was third on Colorado Blue.
Canter dedicated the victory to her coach and mentor Caroline Moore, who had died two months earlier.