Ben started his 2012 international campaign by winning in Basel's Preis der LGT with his Olympia World Cup winner Tripple X, who is owned by his rider and Emma and Mike Phillips of Quainton Stud.
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."
Preparing for Florida
At present all the preparations for Florida involve my computer, phone, loads of emails, paperwork and quotations - not a horse in sight! Flights and travel arrangements for horses, grooms, owners and myself all have to be planned and booked along with all the normal "holiday" bits - car hire, accommodation etc. etc.
I am planning on taking 8 horses, including Robin Hood and Tripple X although they will also compete at on the European circuit during February, March and April. Some of the less well known horses are also coming - the newly acquired grey stallion owned by the Cook's called Cloud 9and Quainton Stud's Quiet Easy who has been so successful with Jessica Botham. Here's hoping the weather will be hot!
CSI 5* Prix Le Figaro:Ben Maher and Tripple X by a hair
In a prelude to the Rolex IJRC Top 10 Final, the Prix Le Figaro saw the cream of the riders and mounts take to the course, including two pairs from the French team, currently vice world and European champions : Penelope Leprevost with Mylord Carthago HN and Oliver Gullion with Lord de THeize. The event also featured two pairs of European team champions: Janne Friederike Meyer riding Cellagon Lambrasco along with Marco Kutcher on Cornet Obolensky.
Of the four illustrious pairs, only Penelope and Mylord missed out on the jump-off, with 5 faults on the course.
The jump off itself was contested by 14 pairs, and faults were few and far between. Eventually the clock decided it, with Britain's Ben Maher and his stallion Tripple X 111 running out winners in a time of 36.19.
European team champion Ludger Beerbaum had looked set for victory with Chaman, but with a time of 39.91 they were forced to settle for seond place after the Brit's storming round.
Oliver Gullion produced a fine performance with Lord de Theize, clocking 37.03 to take the third place.
Links to online news items/footage of Ben from Olympia
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."
