Peter Charles's hopes of scooping the u £16,000 winner's pot in the Olympia Grand Prix ended up on the floor - literally - last night as he and Traxdata Amber du Montois bit the dust when going last to chase the target set by America's Alison Firestone.
Charles, who is due to have a scan on his broken left ankle to decide whether surgery is necessary or not, was lucky to survive without further damage to his leg, but was unhurt and able to ride into the arena to collect the substantially reduced £5,150 he won.
Germany's Helena Weinberg, winner here two years ago with the now dead Ferdinand, put in a great try with the game Little Gun. But the grey, which has already won both the Berlin World Cup round and the Stuttgart Grand Prix this term, put in one buck too many on the long run to the final fence to cross the line almost half a second adrift.
Compatriot Lars Nieberg, a member of Germany's gold medal team at the Atlanta Olympics three years ago, sliced almost a second off the target but left two fences on the ground with Loro Piana Esprit, before Charles came in as the final challenger.
The track was certainly not one suited to the difficult mare, Amber du Montois, and she hit the second fence as Charles tried to twist her in mid-air to get the tricky turn back to the Lottery fence. A further three faults for a circle to that were then wiped out, however, as both the mare and Charles hit the deck, slipping on the turn after the next for automatic elimination.
Fighter of the week award must go to John Whitaker, who notched up seven victories, of which six came with the stallion Virtual Village Randi. The Yorkshireman seemed assured of the leading rider award, but that went for the first time to Robert Smith.
Olympia Grand Prix: 1, USA's Royal Future (Alison Firestone); 2, Germany's Little Gun (Helena Weinberg); 3, Germany's Loro Piana Esprit (Lars Nieberg); 4, Ireland's Traxdata Amber du Montois (Peter Charles); 5, Britain's Senator Tees Hanauer (Robert Smith); 6, Belgium's RBG Nura (Ludo Philippaerts).
Eurosport Christmas Hamper: 1, Britain's Virtual Village Randi (John Whitaker); 2, Britain's Equity (Di Lampard); 3, Italy's Bachus Z (Arnaldo Bologni); 4, Germany's Paramo K (Franke Sloothaak); 5, France's Caluma de Rhuys (JeanMarc Nicolas); 6, Britain's Elise (Mark Armstrong).
Knockout: 1, Britain's Virtual Village Randi (John Whitaker); 2, Belgium's RBG Nikias (Ludo Philippaerts); equal 3, Germany's Silwa Wapiti (Helena Weinberg) and Britain's Traxdata Lift Off (Tim Stockdale).
Perton Signs Christmas Eve six-bar: Equal 1, Germany's Gio Granno (Franke Sloothaak) and Damhus Los Del Rio (Ulrich Kirchhoff); 3, Switzerland's Domina III (Willi Melliger); equal 4, Austria's Zapon (Anton Martin Bauer), Switzerland's Aegon's Poor Boy (Beat Mandli) and Germany's Fighting Alpha (Lars Nieberg).
