Eventing Euros return to Blenheim after 20 years

The Oxfordshire four-star will mark its 35th anniversary by hosting the eventing Europeans for a second time

- PIPPA ROOME

THE European Eventing Championships will take place in Oxfordshire next year, at Blenheim Palace, from 18 to 21 September 2025.

Britain’s host duties for the eventing European Championships seem to run on a 10-year cycle – Blenheim ran the event in 2005, when Zara Phillips (now Tindall) won individual gold on Toytown, and it was held at Blair Castle in Scotland in 2015.

Jeanette Brakewell, who was on the British gold medal-winning team at Blenheim in 2005 with Over To You (Jack), said: “It’s absolutely brilliant news that the Europeans are coming to Blenheim again.

“That was Jack’s last team appearance, when he was 17, and the conditions were good when we went out as pathfinders on cross-country day. It didn’t start raining until later, but when it came down, it seriously came down – my lasting memory is of Zara going round in the horizontal rain later on and then coming home with the gold.”