Equestrianism: Smith denied at the last as Angot stuns home crowd

Scott Smith held the lead for a long time in yesterday's Nachbarland Niederlande Prize and, though pegged back to fourth place on Cabri d'Elle, he was delighted with the way the stallion coped in the famous arena of the Aachen Nations Cup Show. "Some horses shrink and others grow in these big arenas and fortunately mine grew," Smith said.

The home crowd were delighted at the prospect of a German victory when Ludger Beerbaum, their European champion, went into the lead on Goldfever in the latter part of the contest. However, he was beaten when a little-known 26-year-old Frenchman, Reynald Angot on Dollar de la Pierre, had the audacity to overtake him by 0.67 seconds to win the event.

Angot was runner-up to Smith in this year's Madrid Grand Prix and, like the 28-year-old Brition, he is having his first taste of the big-time atmosphere here. Smith has two main goals this year – he hopes to earn a place on the Great Britain team for September's World Equestrian Games and wants to help Britain gain a place in next year's Show Jumping Super League.