MJ Tumbridge.

And so it turned out as her dressage performance on Bermuda's Gold left the Island's Pan-Am gold medallist hovering in mid-pack after the first phase yesterday of a tough Olympic competition.

Tumbridge's brown mare ended the least strenuous but most precise of the three-day event with 52.6 penalty points, good enough for 21st place in the final entry of 38 horses.

Tumbridge and her small mount -- perhaps the smallest in the field -- entered today's seven-kilometre cross-country, the second stage, with it all to do.

This and tomorrow's jumping phase are Bermuda's Gold's strengths, but she will now not have a chance to prove it after the fall which broke the mare's leg at the second fence of the cross-country course yesterday (see story on page one).

Of yesterday's result, Tumbridge said: "I'm very pleased with the horse. She really did perform.

"But I am a little disappointed with the mark. I was aiming for somewhere in the mid-40s.

"But she has got what it takes to put the pieces together (in the cross-country).'' Ideally Tumbridge wanted a top 15 place after the dressage, but appeared to remain very much in the hunt with her 21st, although first day leader David O'Connor of the US on Custom Made sent out a warning with a superb dressage show that accumulated just 29 penalty points.

Another five riders had less than 40 points.

Tumbridge came from behind to beat O'Connor in last year's Pan-Ams. Britain's top rider Ian Stark was just one place above Tumbridge in 20th after posting 51 points on Araki.

EQUESTRIAN RAH