British rider Ben Maher wins Bahrain Pearl Stakes at Royal Windsor Horse Show
British star Ben Maher produced a stylish performance to win Friday’s feature international showjumping class at the Royal Windsor Horse Show.
Maher, a member of Great Britain’s London 2012 gold medal-winning team alongside Nick Skelton, Scott Brash and Peter Charles, landed the Bahrain Pearl Stakes on Tic Tac.
Maher was last to go in a seven-horse jump-off, having seen former Olympic individual champion Eric Lamaze set a scorching pace with Fine Lady 5.
Ben Maher (Owen Humphreys/PA)
But Canadian Lamaze’s time of 37.53 seconds could not hold off Maher, who clocked 37.23 to take the £11,000 top prize, with Germany’s David Will and Copain third.
The day’s opening international class – the Manama two-phase competition – went to American Laura Kraut in impressive fashion.
Kraut, riding Whitney, clocked 27.94 seconds for the jump-off section of her round, edging out Britain’s former world number one Brash and Irish star Billy Twomey.
Scotsman Brash guided Hello Forever to a time of 28.10 seconds, which Twomey and Kimba Flamenco matched for a tie of second spot.
The five-star show reaches its climax on Sunday with the Rolex Grand Prix, which is followed by a public retirement ceremony for 59-year-old reigning Olympic individual champion Skelton and his Rio ride Big Star.
