Townend amassed 21.5 penalties after clocking one second over the optimum time of 11min 45sec.

The 37-year-old, who made history by finishing the dressage in first and second place, is in pole position going into tomorrow's concluding show-jumping stage.

He will a 5.6 penalty advantage over his nearest rival, compatriot Piggy French, riding Vanir Kamira.

French has a score of 26.8, with Australian Christopher Burton and horse Graf Liberty third on 27.7 prior to the final day of the five-star event.

"We had awful preparation for this event last year with the weather causing problems with the spring events, so this year I wanted to show the world how good this horse is," Townend, who lost two of his sponsors following a whipping scandal last year, said.

"You won’t see many rounds like that one at Badminton — we were 14 seconds down coming out of The Lake and I said ‘go’ and he went — he is an exceptional athlete. 

"He was perfect and better than ever."