Nick wins Santa Stakes

Nick Skelton continued his good form at Olympia on Saturday, where he won the major jump-off class, the Santa Stakes, on Pat Hales’s eight-year-old Pandur.

The course once again proved tricky and only Nick and German rider Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum reached the jump-off. The man from Warwickshire then jumped a flying double clear and, although Meredith was also foot-perfect on Checkmate, she finished more than 2sec in arrears.

Nick had earlier come close to victory in the Masters, where he and Russel finished just behind Germany’s Alois Pollmann-Schweckhorst. Alois was riding his chestnut Diamonds Daylight, a horse who has previously been a big winner in speed classes, but who showed his scope to capture the £13,000 first prize.

Tim Stockdale’s great form continued with another victory on Fresh Direct Glenwood Springs, this time in the pounds for points topscore class, where riders take home the prize-money equivalent of their final score.

Tim collected a maximum of the speedy son of Nimmerdor to win £1,300 pounds, the same amount as secoond-placed Guy Williams on a new ride, Terry Wilkins’s Belgian-bred Onyx V.

After numerous placings, Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum got her head in front on her chestnut mare, Donnerlitchen, in the Olympia Speed Stakes, finishing almost 2sec clear of Belgium’s Jos Lansink with AK Peanuts Z. John Whitaker was the best of the British in ninth place on Lord Z.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now