Video: Bramham International Horse Trials

Phillips will go into tomorrow’s penultimate day of the Equi-Trek Bramham International Horse Trials in contention for CIC three-star honours.

After the cancellation of key pre-Olympic events Badminton and Chatsworth last month due to prolonged rain, Bramham has taken on added significance in terms of Olympic selection, with the five-strong British eventing team due to be announced next week.

William Fox-Pitt, Mary King, Piggy French and Nicola Wilson are expected to claim four of those places, but the fifth spot is presumed to be wide open with riders like 2006 world champion Phillips, Laura Collett, Tina Cook, Sarah Cohen and Lucy Wiegersma all in contention.

Phillips is 10th overnight - ahead of Wilson and Fox-Pitt’s Lionheart - following a 43.2 dressage score achieved in wet conditions that tested a 96-strong field.

“Sadly, they weren’t the best conditions to show off a horse’s paces, but he was really good despite that,” Phillips said. “He has really grown up this year and is now good in his brain.

“We plodded around in the mud, but I am really pleased overall with him.”

British selector Mandy Stibbe added: “High Kingdom is a lovely horse and Zara will be out to prove to everybody how good she is.

“There are at least 10 combinations that are looking fantastic, so selection is still up and running. We are all excited about it. There a whole bunch of them in contention for selection - it is all up for grabs.”

Collett, meanwhile, produced another outstanding dressage performance that lit up today’s action in Yorkshire.

Wiltshire-based Collett swept past overnight leader Lucy Jackson by posting a score of 37.5 penalties on Rayef.

Collett and Rayef led Badminton after the opening day last year, eventually finishing eighth to confirm their status as genuine challengers for Olympic selection.

Although Rayef’s cross-country performances have not matched that dressage excellence on a consistent basis, Collett knows a good result at Bramham could keep her in the selectors’ thoughts.

Fox-Pitt is just 1.2 penalties behind Collett following a strong test on Neuf des Couers, and this year’s Belton champion Cohen (Treason) is tied for third with New Zealander Andrew Nicholson (Avebury).

Of the other British hopefuls for Greenwich Park next month, Tina Cook and her 2008 Olympics double bronze medal-winning Miners Frolic lie eighth and Wilson is 11th with the brilliant cross-country exponent Opposition Buzz.

But so tight is the competition that only 7.2 penalties separate the leading 15 combinations.

In the CCI three-star class, Fox-Pitt had a field day, holding first and second positions overnight.

He leads a 73-strong entry aboard Chilli Morning, previously ridden by Nick Gauntlett and Mary King and the latest addition to a string of quality horses at his Dorset yard, with Avoca Alibi second.

Cross-country and showjumping is scheduled in both sections over the weekend, and Bramham organisers are hopeful that rain will relent, although the competition’s young event horse classes and stallion parade were called off today.

“We are doing everything humanly possible to keep the main eventing competitions running,” a Bramham spokesperson said.

“The course going is still pretty good and the forecasters are telling us that the weekend is looking much better.”