This time next week we’ll be all eyes forward on Defender Burghley (Stamford, England) as the next five-star of the season celebrates its 65th running September 3-6. Yesterday, the official cross country course preview was released on Burghley TV, the official broadcast hub for the event, featuring Derek di Grazia and British sports presenter Rishi Persad taking a look at what our competitors will have in store for them over the weekend.
This year’s course will carry an optimum time of 11:20, with 28 numbered fences set across a total of 45 jumping efforts. This is right about on par with the 2025 track, which had an optimum time of 11:24. While the course this year will run in the same direction as 2025 (which, you may recall, was a switch-up after several years of running mostly counter clockwise), Derek has updated or otherwise changed all of the combinations for a new look and feel in comparison to last year.
“The combinations have all been changed, so it’s going to give the riders a new look, different exercises to do,” Derek says in the course preview. “Many of the single fences have been moved around, so I think it’s going to be quite a different a different course from what it was last year.”
Indeed, taking an early look at the preview video reveals that the combinations have all been rearranged, some of which look like they’ll present a larger challenge than they did last year (quite a few massive corners on very acute angles, for example). This includes a third element now added at the Boodles Raindance that will put the horses and riders on their toes within the first two minutes of leaving the box, a slightly shortened but very intense skinny brush to open corner combination at the Joules at the Maltings, and another big corner question that will be asked once the riders jump off the iconic Burghley Leaf Pit later on course.
We’ll of course have a more intensive preview for you coming next week once we’ve had a chance to go for a walk ourselves, but in the meantime you can sign up for Burghley TV here and access the preview at your convenience. CrossCountry App will also have the course preview on its app and website in due course.
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