O'Connor, who made history with the best eventing dressage score in Olympic history on Wednesday, maintained his score of 29.00 penalties with a perfect cross country ride on his veteran partner. He enters Friday's concluding stadium jumping phase with a lead of 8.40 penalties over Heidi Antikatzidis of Greece who is second with a score of 37.40 on Michaelmas. Two-time Olympic champion Mark Todd of New Zealand stands third with 39.00 penalties on Eyespy II.

O'Connor had words of praise for his horse. "He's such a tremendous athlete," said O'Connor who, along with his wife Karen, helped the USET win the Bronze Medal in this year's team eventing competition to go with their team Silver Medal from the 1996 Olympic Games.

"He really was just perfect all the way around. You always hope for a ride like we had today and it’s quite amazing when it happens. The course was very much in Taylor's favor," O'Connor added. "It was a left-handed course and it was big and gallopy. It was well suited to his style."