Olympia World Cup WIN
Ben leaves Olympia as leading rider
After a phenomenal week at Olympia, The London International Horse Show, Ben was crowned the H&M Leading Rider. Top spot in the Rolex FEI World Couple qualifier with Emma and Mike Phillips of Quainton Stud's Tripple X and two wins with Peter Ward's Milena secured his victory as the top performing rider at the event.
"It's been an amazing week," said Ben. "I couldn't have asked for a better way to end the year. I have an amazing team behind me and I am so happy for them to get the results."
"I'll be having a few weeks off now, so the horses will have a nice rest, too. Then will start working towards next year's major goal of the London Olympic Games."
World Cup win for Ben
The penultimate day of Olympia, The London International Horse Show, couldn't have gone any better for Ben. He started off the day by winning his second class of the week with Nick Wards's Milena 8. Then, he went on to secure the event's most prestigious competition, the Rolex World Cup Qualifier, with his homebred Tripple X, who is owned by Mike and Emma Phillips of the Quainton Stud.
Lifted by the rapturous applause he was given when he entered the arena for the World Cup jump-off, Ben made a series of exceptional manoeuvres to beat Germany's Marcus Ehning (Sabrina) into second place.
"It is the perfect end to the year," said Ben. "Tripple X is still quite a young horse, but he has proved he can jump big courses. I knew he was special from the very first show I went to on him."
Ben's working towards a big weekend at Olympia
Although he didn't claim any winner's rosettes on day two at Olympia, Ben was nonetheless pleased with his horses' performances on the second day of the London Olympia horse show.
An unlucky fence with Tripple X in the jump-off of the Earls Court Olympia Christmas Cracker but in a fast time gave him a sixth placing, and a third place in the Talk Talk Mistletoe Stakes with Milena 8 boosted his winnings for the week.
Ben was favourite for the Alltech Christmas Puissance with his 2010 winner Noctambule Courcelle, but the first fence en route to the wall fell. And although he cleared the big red wall itself, it ruled him out of progressing further in the competition.
"It's just one of those thing that can happen," he said. "But I think all of the horses are going well and that's good looking forward to Sunday."
Ben scores sole British win on Olympia opening day
Ben had a great start to the show at Olympia The London International Horse Show, winning the Christmas Pudding Speed Stakes with Peter Ward's Milena.
Using tights turns and taking a stride out to a late double enabled him to steal the top prize by over a second from fellow Brit Scott Brash.
"We were very quick coming down to that double, but were also fast the whole way round the course," said Ben, who was the day's only British winner.
"All of my horses [Milena, Tripple X and Tackeray] and I am pleased with all of them. Tackeray was just a bit unlucky to have one down in his class."
