Despite the inclement weather, a packed house at Olympia was delighted by a tense jump off to the Rolex FEI World Cup Qualifier this afternoon. 

Challenging course, but plenty of clears

Despite course builder Guilherme Jorge's challenging course, there were 15 clears but the bogey fences were obvious. The related distance between fences three and four A and B caused riders to make a tricky decision. Do they take five strides and risk knocking the oxer of 4B, or four and risk the plank on 4A? Watch course builder Guilherme Jorge talk about the questions fences three into four pose to riders below.

Another stumbling block for many of the riders was element C of fence 13. Several riders rode clear until the final fence, where they toppled the top pole. It made for a frustrating ride for the riders, but an exciting spectacle for the crowd.

Of his course, Guilherme Jorge said: "I don't build very often here, and the standard is very high. I should have built the course bigger, but the track was very good. We have a very good jump off with riders shaving just a hundredth of a second of each other's times."

Whitaker flies

As always, whenever a Whitaker enters the arena, the crowd go wild and their delight at seeing Michael ride to glory on GIG Amai, the dark bay ten-year-old gelding owned by Beatrice Mertens, was immeasurable. After the previous two rounds exciting the crowd by superseding each other by a fraction of second, Michael shaved a further two hundreth of a second from second placed Billy Twomey's time. The master showed the crowd how it was done. 

"I haven't had the best year," Michael said. "I planned him for this all week so to pull it off is brilliant. I have two or three great horses now so I'm looking forward to next year."

Hear what Michael had to say by watching our video of the press conference held immediately after the class below.

Of his old boss, Billy Twomey said: "I read somewhere that form is temporary, but class is permanent. That's how it is with Michael.

The luck of the Irish

After Kevin Staut's magnificently fast round of 36.26 on Le Prestige St Louis de Hus, Billy Twomey shaved a hundredth of a second off of the Frenchman's time to speed home at 35.74 seconds. Amazing sport for both the riders and spectators. 

Watch the press conference in full below