COMPETING at Badminton is much tougher than the Olympics – official.

Hugh Thomas gave that assessment on the eve of the famous Mitsubishi Badminton Horse Trials which begin today – and he should know.

Thomas competed as a rider both at Badminton and in the 1976 Montreal Olympics while he designed the cross country course for the 1988 Seoul Olympics and for a number of years the Badminton itself. He has been the director of Badminton Horse Trials since 1989.

“The average standard of the rider at Badminton is so much higher than that for the Olympics,” said Thomas at an entertaining Badminton preview evening held at the King’s Head Hotel in Cirencester.

“It is an individual event for the best whereas the Olympics is a team competition and some of those team members would not get into the starting line-up at Badminton.

“When designing a course you have to cater for the average competitor not just the elite.”

Thomas was joined on the panel by two of the young up-and-coming names of British eventing, Dani Evans and the now Gatcombe-based Tom McEwen, along with Olympic judge Nick Burton and former Badminton winner Rodney Powell. MC for the evening, which was in aid of Riding for the Disabled, was Jonty Evans.

Thomas expressed his delight at the 2016 entry which includes Olympic champion Michael Jung, although Andrew Nicholson, Pippa Funnell and William Fox-Pitt have since been forced to withdraw.

“We have a very good line-up – perhaps not as stellar as that in 2013, but we have a lot of big names including most of the New Zealand team.”

Thomas also shared a couple of examples of what Badminton means to the top event riders.

“Ian Stark (former winner) was down last week on behalf of the Horse and Hound and he was telling me what a buzz he still gets just driving into Badminton village each year,” said Thomas.

“All the horses on the ‘wait list’ have now made the starting line-up and I can tell you there was a lot of whooping at the end of the phone when Ben Hobday got the news that he would be making the cut.”

It is an Olympic year and Thomas is in no doubt about the power of Badminton in the eyes of selectors around the world.

“If you win Badminton you will go to the Olympics,” insisted Thomas unequivocally. “No selector has ever left out a winner of Badminton. Equally, if you go badly at Badminton, you will not go.”

Thomas also defended the Olympics as a supporter of eventing.

“Our sport needs the OIympics,” he said. “Our riders need the funding which they simply would not get if there was no equestrian sport at the Olympics.

“At the Olympics, equestrian sport is on centre stage and because we are a minority sport we badly need that backing.”

Thomas also robustly defended criticism from fellow panellist Powell that the prize money has not kept pace with Badminton’s position at the peak of the sport.

Powell is not alone in thinking that Badminton makes too much profit rather than rewarding the stars of the show who draw the huge crowds.

“Our income last year was £3.7m and our expenses were £3.6m, which includes almost £400,000 in prize money and £170,000 to British Eventing to help sustain the sport,” said Thomas.

“That’s a profit of £100,000 if everything goes smoothly but in 2014 we made a loss. It’s an extraordinarily expensive event to put on.”