Steve Guerdat pulls off win in Longines Christmas Cracker

The London 2012 individual gold medallist Steve Guerdat was once again on dominant form on British soil, winning tonight’s feature class at Olympia.

Only five riders out of 29 starters went clear in the first round, with no Brits making it through to the jump-off.

First to go, Ireland’s Bertram Allen picked up four faults, before Manuel Fernandez Saro went clear in a time of 39.85sec to take the lead. Malin Baryard-Johnsson also faulted, before Irishman Anthony Condon took the lead on 38.05 sec.

But with former Olympic champion Guerdat drawn last to go, Condon didn’t stay on top of the leaderboard for long. He made the most of the lack of clear rounds to guide his 10-year-old gelding Corbinian round to take the win, knocking almost 1.5sec of the leading time.

It’s been an emotional few weeks for the Swiss rider – in our video above, he explains why it’s not sad to see his Olympic horse Nino des Buissonnets bow out of competition, and tells us what the horse is doing now in his retirement.