MARLBOROUGH-based Andrew Nicholson is in prime position to claim his fourth consecutive Barbury Horse Trials title on Avebury.

The New Zealander jumped clear in the show-jumping stage of the CIC*** to leave him at the top of the leaderboard going into the final day of the competition.

Nicholson went into the third day of the competition in the lead, having secured just 33.9 penalty points in the dressage stage on Friday, knocking one of his other horses, Nereo, off top spot in the process.

The 53-year-old kept his nerve and put in a faultless display to leave him with a lead of 3.4 points over China's Alex Hua Tian going into the cross-country stage tomorrow, and is aiming to keep it business as usual.

“You have just got to worry about doing your own thing,” he said after his round.

“Whether you are in the lead or at the back, you have still got to jump the jumps and I run at a speed that I know he is happy at, and I know it is fast enough to do the job.

“He can go a lot faster, or a lot slower, but I like that tempo and he is used to going at, so I will just do the same as I have done before and hopefully that will be enough.

With Barbury being Nicholson’s closest event to his home in Marlborough there should be no surprises as he goes into the cross-country stage, but he knows that the combinations at the Earthline Quarry and the Earthline Sunken Road Corner, fences 16 and 18ab, could pose the trickiest obstacle.

“Towards the end of the course, where they call the quarry I think, and they have the cricket bat and a ball and then you have to turn down to the corner,” he added.

“It is a bit of the course where the horses are normally starting to get a little bit tired and just need to have a breath, but it is full on there and that will make it a little bit harder.

“You just have to back up a little bit sooner than normal, give them a breather, and then jump those set of jumps. It is a good course design.

“I was very pleased with him in the test and thought he should get a very good mark and, of course there is always room for improvement, but I thought he was very smooth, very accurate, and I know the judges like him.

“He went in there today and jumped beautifully.”

Nicholson also sits in third, after going clear on Nereo to leave him on 38.3 penalty points, 0.1 ahead of Badgsertown-based Sir Mark Todd and Leonidas II.