Santa's Echo bags Grand Prix treble

Equestrianism

Tim Stockdale won the Barbour Grand Prix on the closing day of the Royal Windsor Horse Show, bringing his winnings this year with Toggi Santa's Echo to pounds 25,000 - plus his own weight in red wine, which amounted to 96 bottles.

Santa's Echo, a 15-year-old grey, has won all three of his Grand Prix contests this year. He triumphed first at Jerez in Spain then at Maubeuge in France, where Stockdale won his haul of wine by becoming the leading rider of the show.

Yesterday's contest was the most difficult of the three but, after earlier problems with the ground, it was decided on going that was just about perfect.

"I was happy to go clear in the jump-off, but I thought I'd get beaten," Stockdale, 31, said. As it transpired, he had the only clear to defeat the faster rounds of Marion Hughes on Flo Jo and Nick Skelton on Sublime.

Although short-listed for the Olympics, Stockdale has no ambition to compete in Atlanta. Santa's Echo would not be up to such demands and his younger horse, Toggi Samoens, is not yet ready. Instead, he is looking towards the Sydney 2000 Olympics with Toggi Samoens.

Results, Sporting Digest, Page 19