WILLIAM Fox-Pitt was in positive mood after continuing his Olympic preparations with some strong performances at the Somerley Park International horse trials.

The Dorset-based London 2012 eventing contender recorded a victory and two podium finishes in the star-studded event, which was held near Ringwood earlier this week.

Fox-Pitt admitted his surprise after guiding Neuf Des Coeurs to a win in the Open Intermediate section D, with Freddie Mac claiming second position in Novice section J and Henton For Fun registering a third-place finish in the BE100 class.

The former world number one, who is expected to form part of a powerful host British team at this summer’s Games, was pleased with his exploits on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Writing on his website foxpitteventing.co.uk, Fox-Pitt said: “We were all in total shock after I won an Open Intermediate section at Somerley on Neuf Des Coeurs, which was my first OI win for a very long time.

“Neuf did another lovely dressage to lead the section on 26 and followed that up with a smooth double clear, only incurring 1.6 time faults across country.

“I wanted to let him bowl along a bit as the ground was good but I was more than a little surprised with how fast I went, as was everybody else.

“We had another very successful day on the second day at Somerley.

“Freddie Mac came second in his novice section.

“Henton For Fun had a big day competing in his first-ever event and it was very exciting that he managed to finish third in his BE100 section.”

In his other Open Intermediate outings, Fox-Pitt finished 13th on Parklane Hawk, with Seacookie ninth.

He is the only rider in eventing history to win the world’s five four-star events – Badminton, Kentucky, Luhmuhlen, Burghley and Pau – and he already has Olympic pedigree with team silver at the Athens in 2004 and bronze at Beijing in 2008.