“He’s very shy to start with but I think he’s become quite aware that he’s a superstar now.
“When the wagon goes down the road to a competition and he’s not in it, he’s banging the stable door down. Thomas is what you’d call a professional, a proper competition horse.”
The “quirky” horse first gained attention in winning the Burghley Horse Trials on his debut at the level in 2017. He has since achieved success at Kentucky, Burghley again and Maryland last autumn.
Townend, 42, has won nine five-star level events, including Badminton in 2009 on Flint Curtis.
“For me to try to show the world how good he is, is my main job but, so far so good. By the time he finishes everybody will realise quite what a special horse we’ve seen,” he added.
Townend is also riding Ballaghmor Class’ stablemate Cooley Rosalent in a bid to claim his second Badminton title and 10th five-star win.
Paris Olympic champions Laura Collett, Ros Canter and Tom McEwen are amongst the challengers, alongside the reigning World Champion Yasmin Ingham.
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