Can Tim Price be number one at Burghley?
World number one Tim Price is one of eventing's most prolific winners and experienced riders - but he admits that nerves always kick in when he walks the Defender Burghley cross-country course.
The 47-year-old New Zealander won Burghley on Ringwood Sky Boy in 2018 - the last non-British competitor to do so - and he has arrived this year with a strong twin challenge of Falco and Global Quest as he chases a seventh five-star title of his career.
It would be no surprise to see Tim once again featuring at the Burghley business-end on Sunday afternoon, and for him the competition has never lost a sense of anticipation or excitement.
"The thing I love about Burghley is when I walk the course I get nervous and wonder how to do my job," he said. "There are not many places like that.
"I am not saying it always goes to plan in other places, but the feeling you get walking Burghley is you are questioning everything, and in a funny way for me there is a closer relationship with the course designer because you trust him and try to see it through his eyes and the particular question he is asking. I refer to that quite a lot."
Assessing this year's cross-country challenge posed by Derek Di Grazia, Tim added: "I think it is a bit tougher than last year. I think it's a little bit more modern, you know, like where we have got a question it is followed by another question, so it is quite intense in that way.
"It is a long way around, as usual. And the Trout Hatchery, I think, is particularly a big ask at that stage of the track. So, yes, there is lots to do everywhere and you are not home until you are home. "
Tim launched his latest Burghley bid aboard 13-year-old bay gelding Global Quest, with a dressage score of 32.1 putting them in second place at the halfway point on day one.
"This horse is learning dressage, and you sometimes forget how long a partnership takes to really cement," he said. "I've had him now for a couple of years, and it is just starting to feel like we are really a team. It was fun.
"He tried his hardest and didn't get distracted. The flowers and things sometimes caught his eye, but he came back to me every time, and it was just a nice smooth, flowing test."