Course fails to dampen Charles

Peter Charles, currently lying equal 24th in the western European league of show jumping's World Cup, earned his place on the startlist for this afternoon's qualifier at Olympia, in spite of hitting a fence in yesterday's eliminator with Traxdata Amber du Montois.

Charles and the French-bred mare, which he describes as one of the most difficult horses he's ever sat on, were drawn early in yesterday's field and, with just 20 to go through to today's important World Cup qualifier, had to give their rivals something to aim at. But Frank Rothenburger's 11-fence track took no prisoners and none of the first seven had gone clear when the Irish combination came into the ring.

The Hampshire-based Irishman opted to go for a safe clear, but then had to up the pace when the mare trailed off the upright going into the first of three doubles on the course. They finished with just that one mistake and, although Charles was left to sweat it out till the end of the class, he actually made the cut with ease, finishing 15th overall behind popular British winner Robert Smith.

"It was a tricky course, but I was pleased enough with the result when I came out," Charles said after the class yesterday. "But she's so difficult. John (Whitaker) tried her and couldn't get on with her and I'm just trying to pick up the pieces he left. You have to ride her off the seat of your pants. If you have a plan it just goes out of the window."

Charles is hoping to pick up points in today's Cup qualifier in a bid to get through to next year's final in Las Vegas, but a broken ankle and the death of his top horse Nustria this summer have meant his plans for the latter half of the season have been considerably reshuffled.

This afternoon, he will have his work cut out to beat Robert Smith, impressive winner of yesterday's eliminator with another of the sport's "difficult" horses, Senator For The Best.

Smith had the best of the draw and, second from the end, sliced more than three seconds off the target set by western European league leader Carsten-Otto Nagel to claim both the £5,400 winner's cheque and a last-to-go slot today. Nagel held on to second, with Holland's Jos Lansink third ahead of British amazon Di Lampard.

Peter Charles was further up the line last night when he rode newcomer Traxdata Loughna vally into equal second in the Puissance, joining three others that failed at 7ft 1in behind Austrian winner Anton Martin Bauer. And Roger McCrea also kept the Irish flag flying when slotting into both second and sixth in the young show jumper of the year final.

John Whitaker's 16-year-old son Robert, a member of Britain's gold medal winning team at the European junior championships, took the honours with Lord Liberty, with 20-year-old McCrea just over .75 off the pace in second with Tannaghill. For good measure the Portadown rider was also sixth with First Clover with a single mistake against the clock.