WILTSHIRE-BASED Sir Mark Todd hopes to put a disappointing Olympic Games behind him as he targets adding to his bulging trophy cabinet in 2017.

Contesting in his eighth Games at Rio last summer, Todd was left wondering what could have been as he had four rails down in the final showjumping phase to see New Zealand fall to fourth in the standings.

However, the 61-year-old veteran was back with his Kiwi teammates at a squad showjumping training day and is looking forward to the year ahead.

“The horses have all come through the winter well and have had a couple of runs already that have gone well,” he said. “Most of the horses I have had for quite a while now so they are fairly established and they have come up well this year.

“We have got no championship this year so we can focus on picking events that we want to go to and focussing on that.”

Todd is not travelling to the first four-star event of the season at Kentucky at the end of April but has been included in the Badminton entry list with Leonidas II, who he finished fourth on last year, and NZB Campino, who started this season in fine form with a win at Tweseldown earlier this month.

“With the older horses, we’ll be targeting the four-star events, like Badminton, and then I have got a couple of others who might step up to four star later in the year.

“Leo has been to Badminton a couple of times and Campino has been once and it didn’t end well but he has done several other four stars since then and has done well. They will both have good chances.”

A noticeable absentee from this year’s Badminton is Marlborough-based Kiwi Jonelle Price, who finished 10th at last year’s event on Classic Moet.

However, Price, who was a spectator at the New Zealand team training, admits having a quieter start to the year could prove fruitful in the long term.

“I’m having a bit of a quiet spring myself,” she said. “Classic Moet has done, I think, six four stars back-to-back so it certainly won’t hurt her.

“She has been amazing for the last three years and she is 14 this year but looks fantastic and I would like to think she will be a front-runner still for next year’s worlds.

“Perhaps, a slightly quieter year this year might do that the world of good.”