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Ben Maher Dashes Robert Smith's Hopes of Opening Day Double at Olympia
Having already won the afternoon's jump-off class with Raging Bull Vangelis S, Smith set an early lead with his World Equestrian Games partner Talan and looked increasingly unbeatable as attempts to get within even a second forced errors from the classiest field seem at Olympia in over 10 years.
But Maher had plenty of time to analyse the quickest routes and sliced an astonishing 2.3secs off Talan's time.
Oscar is one of several in a young string that Maher has been educating largely in Europe during the sabbatical he awarded to his Olympic ride Robin Hood who needed time to "chill" after an intense first half of the 2010 season.
"Oscar has done a great job for me in the past few months," said Maher. "I took a chance at the last fence and was pleased how he responded."
Smith aims Talan in Sunday's UK's leg of the Rolex World Cup - Olympia's feature class - but is frustrated about the difficulty British riders have in securing invitations to qualifiers in continental Europe. Smith began chasing points in October but is still on nil and nowhere near the top 20 slots guaranteed a place at April's final in Leipzig.
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