SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA-September 21, 2000-David O'Connor of The Plains, VA is one step away from the Gold Medal in individual eventing after a flawless cross country ride on Custom Made, a 15-year-old, Irish Thoroughbred gelding owned by Xandarius, LLC.

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.

Also turning in stellar cross country rides were the other two riders representing the U.S. Equestrian Team (USET) in the individual competition. Bobby Costello of Southern Pines, NC matched O'Connor's clean ride and ended the day in sixth place with his dressage score of 42.40 penalties on Chevalier, an 11-year-old, Thoroughbred gelding owned by Deirdre Pirie. The Hamilton, MA native is only one rail away from the Silver Medal position.

Also finishing with no jumping, and only 0.80 time penalties, was Julie Black of Newnan, GA who now stands 12th with a score of 53.60 on Hyde Park Corner, a 10-year-old, American Thoroughbred gelding owned by Jim and Janet Richards.

"All of our riders had their heads on right today," said USET chef d'equipe Captain Mark Phillips. "They did their jobs well and their horses jumped beautifully."

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."

Costello, competing in his first Olympics, turned in one of only 11 penalty-free rides among the 38 who tried the course. He said the ride went exactly according to plan. "Nothing went wrong today," Costello said. "We kept the same gallop the whole way and he jumped everything beautifully."

Black also had words of praise for her mount. "I thought he was amazing today," she said. "Knowing that I was tight on time, I pushed him a bit at the end, but I have to say that he was truly great."

All three riders gave credit to their chef d'equipe for having them well prepared for their Olympic ride. "Mark's great for our confidence," O'Connor said, "and he does a fabulous job on site. He doesn't miss a thing."

"Once we walked the course with Mark, we knew exactly what we were supposed to do and then we did it," Costello said. "It went just as Mark said."

"Because of Mark, we had a super plan. I felt very secure about how it would go and it turned out to be great fun."

Full results are available on www.olympics.com.