Mark Phillips: ‘This is a long pre-Tokyo month’

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

It’s the nerve-racking final countdown to the Games, says former Olympic team gold medallist, four-time Badminton winner and leading cross-country course-designer Mark Phillips

THE Tokyo-bound eventing horses, including long-suffering reserves, are all in quarantine before flying to Japan next week. All the British horses are looking in good shape – fingers crossed they stay that way but quarantine, travel and training is a long month and history says normally someone takes an unlucky step along the way.

Horse injuries have already meant that Doug Payne gets his first Olympic chance for the US, joining Phillip Dutton and Boyd Martin as Liz Halliday-Sharp had to withdraw. It’s the same story for France with Christopher Six joining Tom Carlile and Nicolas Touzaint as Thibaut Vallette has had to stand aside.

Which countries do you think will be on the eventing podium in Tokyo? Let us know your predictions by emailing hhletters@futurenet.com, including your name, nearest town and county, for the chance to win a bottle of Champagne Taittinger

This exclusive column is also available to read in H&H magazine, on sale Thursday 15 July

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