ALCESTER’S Nick Skelton is still flying the British flag high in the USA after competing in Lexington, Kentucky.

The Alltech National Horse Show concluded with the $250,000 Grand Prix which saw course designer Richard Jeffery build a large technical track.

Challenging both horse and rider, only five combinations managed to jump clear making it into through to the jump off.

American Richard Spooner and his ride Cristallo set the pace with tidy inside turns and a clear effort coming home in 37.97 seconds.

Skelton was the last to challenge the shortened course with Beverley Widdowson’s ten year old grey Gelding Carlo.

The speedy duo produced the only other fault-free round.

They also managed to catch all the inside turns, and although they had a fast gallop through the end of the course, a slow start proved costly when they tripped the timers at 38.33s to finish in second.

Skelton said: "I didn't really get the distance I wanted to the first fence, so I ended up having six strides to the vertical."

"Then, when I turned, Carlo just sort of stopped dead.

“I stood still for a split second, so I knew I was well down then.

“ I knew from the rustic to the end of the course I was pretty quick. I thought if I got five to the second I probably wouldn't have beat him anyway, and I probably wouldn't have gone as hard then as I did.

“But I was very pleased with Carlo anyway. He jumped very nicely this week."