Defending champion Fox-Pitt senses it may not be his time this year

World No 2 Fox-Pitt has landed the feature CCI three-star event an amazing six times and is well placed to bag another triumph ahead of this morning’s cross-country stage.

Fox Pitt, aged 44, sits second on last year’s winner Chilli Morning and also seventh on Running Order behind new leader Pippa Funnell – a CCI winner at Bramham in 1992, 2002 and 2010.

Funnell, also 44, assumed top spot with yesterday’s impressive dressage display on Or Noir De La Loge with France’s former leader Maxime Livio now third on Cathar De Gamel ahead of Zara Phillips in fourth on Lord Lauries.

And there will certainly be no let-up from 44-year-old Fox-Pitt who hopes to be celebrating a seventh success after tomorrow’s finale, the showjumping phase – even if deep down he feels that 2013 might see one of his rivals shine.

“I’m in the sport that I love and I’m still competitive so I want to do well and I want to win again,” Fox-Pitt told the Yorkshire Post.

“It makes me want win number seven.

“But my two horses are coming here to slightly regroup and consolidate and they are not up-and- coming young horses that I have ridden here in the past.

“It would be a great to win again but I wouldn’t be as desperate to win as I would be if I had never won.

“It would be great but if it’s somebody else’s turn then so be it.

“I’ve had six wins, two one-twos and three or four seconds here at Bramham and it’s been a very lucky place for me.

“But that’s another reason why I probably won’t win. You can’t win every time. And I have very rarely won back-to-back years.

“There are lots of other good ones – you’ve got Zara (Phillips)here, you’ve got Nicola Wilson here and Pippa and you’ve got the Frenchman Maxime Livio who was in the lead. It’s a good field. That’s what is exciting about the sport – nothing is a given.”

Also very much in the mix is New Zealand’s evergreen Mark Todd, who is currently fifth on Leonidas II. Also in contention is Northallerton’s Nicola Wilson, whose Annie Clover sits 12th after yesterday’s dressage display.

Wilson’s Beltane Queen is back in 30th but the Olympic silver medallist is doing her county proud – as are a series of riders in the CIC three-star competition.

The CIC battle is led by New Zealand’s Todd on NZB Regent Lad ahead of Britain’s overnight leader Janine Jansen from Devon on Velocity II.

But leading the Yorkshire bid for honours is York’s Jolyse Clancey who is 34th after dressage with On Stage II – one of the youngest horses in the competition at eight-years-old.

“It’s just nice to be here and to have a horse at this level,” said 25-year-old Clancey. “It’s a super event and great for local people to come to. It’s brilliant.”

York’s Nicola Rooke is narrowly behind Clancey in joint-36th on Foreign Encounter, while Beverley’s Gary Parsonage is joint-43rd on Jessop Red Imp.

Huddersfield’s Sue Chadwick is 47th on Samuel Thomas II, while another of Parsonage’s mounts, Looks Similar, lies 54th.

The CIC event’s cross-country test takes place last thing this afternoon – after the competition’s showjumping phase in the morning.

Yesterday also saw the Bishop Burton College Under-25s CCI three-star event click into gear with Bath’s Dani Evans leading a British 1-2-3 on Raphael II after the dressage phase.

Fellow Briton Tom McEwen sits second on Diesel with Wiltshire’s Georgie Spence third on Wii Limbo.

That competition’s cross-country takes place early this afternoon with the showjumping being staged tomorrow morning.