Two German riders are hot on the heels of leader
Oliver Townend on Carousel Quest following an influential cross-country at the Pau four-star horse trials in France.
All but one of the riders had time penalties on the course, with Dirk Schrade and King Artus (47.5) moving up from fifth to second, 4.2 penalties behind Townend, and Andreas Dibowski and Euroridings Butts Leon (48.6) dropping down the order to third.
Joe Meyer and Clifton Lush (64.8) have overtaken the two Andrew Nicholson rides to be 10th going into the final phase. Nicholson's Armada had a run-out at fence 17 (Le coffin), a spread on top of a steep slope to an arrowhead, when the exuberant Armada over jumped. However, their fast time of 2.4 penalties means they are still in 14th place with 74.6, and Tim Price and Vortex had a clean round but with time penalties to end in 18th with 83.7.
Nicholson's hopes were then placed on the 9-year-old Avebury, fourth after dressage, but the young grey, who was going well and confidently, missed the jump out of the last water (fence 27) and tripped, firing his rider onto the ground. Nicholson had to have stitches for a cut lip.
French riders seemed to put a disappointing European Championship behind them with some superb cross-country riding, showing the rest of the world that Michelet's accuracy testing routes were perfectly rideable as long as you showed commitment.
Pascal Leroy was particularly noteworthy, rising 6 places to 4th on the 9-year-old Minos de Petra, while veteran hero Jean Teulere is lying 6th on the magnificent big horse Matelot du Grand Val and Rodolphe Scherer is 7th on the remarkable 19-year-old Fairfax, who will be retired amid great ceremony after the jumping phase.
Susanna Bordone (Italy) will be pleased with her first ride, Ava, who is in 9th place after accruing 17.2 time penalties, but she was eliminated for 3 refusals on Blue Moss, on whom she was in third place after dressage.
Clea Phillipps (GB) and Lead The Way ran out at the same spot as Armada, and Jan Bynny (USA) and Waterfront ran out at the narrow fences on a mound at 11 (Les triangles) and at the corner on a sharp turn at fence 26 (La trouée).
Fox-Pitt's mishap occurred at the corner at 25 (La cour de ferme), while Austin O'Connor (Ireland) had the gross misfortune to fall from The Pocket Rocket at the final combination, fence 30 (La butte aux palmiers).
Here, his compatriot Mark Kyle made his only mistake of the day in three rides, when, last on course, he ran out at the narrow fence at the bottom of the steep slope and ran into the string on Step In Time. Kyle's heroic effort - three cross-country rides in 2.5 hours - was, however, rewarded with 21st and 23rd places on Willow Fairgreen ATTR and Nitetime Cavalier respectively.
Afterwards, Townend said the course was typical of Pierre Michelet's work, "twisty and full of turns all over the trip. Before the trip I planned in my head a smooth and beautiful ride. Even if particular and unexpected things happened, my horse behaves fantastically well. I am thrilled with him," he said.
Townend admits that when he saw William Fox-Pitt, his rival for the HSBC FEI Classics title, crash out of the reckoning with a run-out on Macchiato, he had to force himself to concentrate, but that it did give him the leeway to take a long route at the narrow houses in the second water.
"I'm not rich, but I am richer!" he joked. "It was a very nice feeling to have the HSBC FEI Classics in the bag, but it was very difficult to concentrate and to ride sensibly, knowing I'd won. I had to tell myself to shut up and concentrate, because there's still a long way to go before I add Pau to my list of wins."
The sole clear round within the time was young French rider Gwendolen Fer on Leria du Ter. She was three seconds under the time, boosting her ranking from 26th to 8th.
"I am over the moon, I could not expect any better. Leria du Ter, my horse, was fantastic. She is only 10 and this is very promising," Fer said.
Fer, 24, is in line to win the HSBC FEI Training Bursary for the best 4* debut.
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