ET brings home the spoils for Simon

Hugo Simon's triumph in the Pulsar Grand Prix, the closing contest of the Monterrey International Horse Show, leaves the 54-year-old Austrian with the chance of adding even bigger cheques to the pounds 93,000 that he collected for his final victory on the wonderful chestnut ET.

Simon now begins his three-show cycle for the Pulsar Crown, which continues next year at Luxembourg and at Valkeswaard in the Netherlands. With the bonuses now increased, a grand prix win at either venue would bring him an extra pounds 460,000. Were he to win both, he would collect the jackpot of pounds 1.16m.

Geoff Billington, sixth on It's Otto, must begin to wonder how many times he has to fill that place -having previously occupied it at the Olympics and in two other major contests here.

The Briton's single mistake in the first round came when It's Otto hit the lowest rail on a triple bar, but jumped high enough to clear the top one. Clear in the second round, he over-ran the time by a split-second for an irritating 0.25 fault.

There were reminders of Atlanta disappointments with two first-round errors apiece from Britain's three regular team members, John Whitaker on Grannusch, his brother Michael on Twostep, and Nick Skelton on Cathleen III.

MONTERREY INTERNATIONAL HORSE SHOW (Monterrey, Mexico) Pulsar Grand Prix: 1 ET (H Simon, Aut) clear, 87.20secs; 2 Rochet M (A Ledermann, Fr) 4 faults, 88.8secs; 3 Crown Royal Legato (P Leone) 4, 89.98; 4 Eros (A Kursinski, US) 4, 91.32; 5 Sprehe Rush On (L Beerbaum, Ger) 4, 91.71; 6 It's Otto (G Billington, GB) 4.25, 90.00.