Bob Ellis’s track rode more easily than anticipated and a whopping 17 combinations went through to the jump-off. However, the shortened course quickly sorted the field and only five jumped clear as riders buckled under the pressure.
Michael Whitaker showed all his experience to produce a superb round on Valentin R for 36.86 seconds, while John was just 0.6 seconds slower on Lord of Arabia. The brothers topped the leaderboard until, a few horses later, Maikel, riding the nine-year-old bay mare VDL Groep Arera C, cheekily shaved off a further 0.72 seconds off the senior British rider’s time.
“I’m not just a bit gutted, I’m totally gutted!” said Michael afterwards. “I think the course rode more easily because it was about 0.5m smaller than last night’s, so felt a bit easier, and, of course, the sport is so much more competitive nowadays.”
Maikel, who is becoming a popular fixture at Olympia, is now second in the H & M Leading Rider of the Show table. He commented: “I didn’t think the course was that easy when I walked it, but we certainly ended up with a lot of clears. But then when you get that many riders in a jump off they take too many risks, which helped me.”
Ben Maher also went clear in the jump-off to finish fourth, on Wings Sublieme, and his consistency over three days means that he still holds onto his H & M Leading Rider armband, by a commanding lead of 10.5 points, with two days to go.
