BETTINA Hoy added another major victory to her illustrious career when she captured the four-star competition at Les Etoiles de Pau in France on Sunday, after leading throughout the three-day competition.

"I am thrilled to have won Les Etoiles de Pau, especially as Ringwood Cockatoo had an injury earlier this year," Bettina said.

"I am also especially pleased to have finished in fifth place in the International Classic Series in its inaugural year."

It was a second four-star victory for Bettina's 17-year-old grey gelding Ringwood Cockatoo, a ride she took over from her husband, Andrew Hoy, Australia's most successful eventing rider.

Bettina was handed some useful leeway by Andrew, who dropped from second place after the cross-country day to sixth, with four fences down riding Moonfleet.

In the jumping Bettina lived dangerously, incurring four faults for a fence down and four time penalties, to take her within 0.5 penalties of the eventual runner-up, French rider Nicholas Touzaint, riding Tatchou.

English rider William Fox-Pitt won the overall FEI Classic standings from Touzaint. Former Australian Phillip Dutton was fourth, Bettina Hoy was fifth, and Andrew Hoy was seventh.

The last international four-star event for this year will be held in Adelaide from November 14-16.

Beijing rider ban

GERMANY'S Christian Ahlmann is the latest leading equestrian rider to be disqualified from the Beijing Olympics, for a positive drug test on his horse.

The 33-year-old jumping rider was also banned from competition for four months by the International Equestrian Federation.

Earlier this month, former Olympic champion Rodrigo Pessoa received a similar penalty, after his fifth-placed finish in the Games in the individual showjumping final.

Pessoa's horse, Rufus, tested positive soon after the competition for Capsaicin, a banned pain-relieving medication.

Three other jumping riders, Denis Lynch of Ireland, Brazil's Bernado Alves and Norway's Tony Andre Hansen, were also thrown out before the showjumping final, after their horses showed traces of Capsaicin.