KEY POINTS:
Mark Todd is one step closer to riding at his sixth Olympics Games, after qualifying for selection at the Saumur three-day event in France.
But the two-time Olympic eventing champion said there was a lot of hard work ahead to get his mount ready for Beijing, now three
months away.
Todd was sixth at Saumur, riding Gandalf.
Compatriots Andrew Nicholson and Tim Price finished fourth and fifth respectively in a competition won by Australian Sam Griffiths.
Todd and Gandalf finished on 71.3 points, eight behind Griffiths, on Happy Times.
Todd now has the two qualifying performances required for selection to the Games team, to be announced next month.
He joins a list that includes Nicholson, Caroline Powell, Joe Meyer, Annabel Wigley, Matthew Grayling, Bryce Newman, Emily Butcher and Heelan Tompkins.
Five riders (four team and one individual) will be named by the New Zealand Olympics Committee for the Games before the end of June.
Nicholson, Grayling and Tompkins were members of the New Zealand team who finished fifth at the Athens Olympics in 2004.
Meyer and Powell joined Nicholson and Tompkins in the team who finished sixth at the world equestrian games in Aachen, Germany, in 2006.
To gain the qualifying score, Todd needed less than 75 penalty points in the dressage, a maximum of one stop and 36 or fewer time penalties in the cross-country and 16 penalties or fewer in the showjumping.
Todd said he was "really pleased with Gandalf's performance".
"We came here thinking that if we got a place in the top 10 that would be good, so he's done really well," he said.
" We've come away with a lot of positives and we know the horse can do a lot more yet so we can go home to England now and start working on things and hopefully we will get the nod from the selectors."
Todd, 52, who has come out of eight years' retirement, said more work needed to be done on 10-year-old Gandalf's dressage and showjumping.
"Gandalf is probably a little green in the ring but that's an experience thing," Todd who won Olympics gold in 1984 and 1988.
"If we get the nod for selection we can go out again and work on the dressage and in a couple of months I think we can make an improvement."
The pair were 25th after the dressage and moved into 13th following the cross country.
In the showjumping, a combination of their clear round and higher-placed pairs knocking down rails allowed them to move up to sixth.
New Zealand equestrian high performance director Blyth Tait said it was not a done deal that the International Equestrian Federation's rider of the 20th century would go to Hong Kong where the Olympics equestrian competition would be run.
"It's down to the selection panel at this stage now he's gained qualification...
"He'll be added to the shortlist in the next week, I don't know if the selectors will be adding anyone else as well," he told Radio Sport
Tait felt there had been a lot of good performances by New Zealand riders and horses over the last 18 months.
"I think it's a good situation where we have to look hard at who might not going to the Olympics rather than who's going because we haven't been in this position for a long time."
The selectors would have to take into account the hot conditions in Hong Kong and the nature of the course, which was twisty, when making their choices.
But Todd with his experience and potential to improve in the next few months would attract the selectors' attention.
- NZPA
