Despite leading the competition since the dressage phase and being hotly tipped to walk away with the $150,000 prize money at Pau, Oliver Townend and Carousel Quest suffered a crushing defeat in the final leg of the competition yesterday as the combination knocked seven poles down.

The surprise winner of the CCI**** was Germany's Dirk Schrade, who had been lying second behind Oliver after the cross country test. Dirk's clear round on the dark bay King Artus meant that Oliver could only afford one fence down, but sadly, he continued to take another six.

Dirk finished on a score of 48.5, 0.1pen ahead of his fellow German Andreas Dibowski on Euroridings Butts Leon, who also show jumped clear.

Frenchman Pascal Leroy finished third, with lucy Wiegersma achieving Britain's best placing in fourth with Granntevka Prince. The pair had two fences down, but still rose a place from fifth after cross-country.

France's Jean Teulere was fifth, one place ahead of Rodolphe Scherer, who retired 19-year-old Fairfax from competition after his show jumping round.

Oliver Townend finished eighth, behind French four-star debutante Gwendolen Fer.