ContinueEquestrain has been the unexpected star turn of Great Britain's gold rush this week, with team titles arriving thick and fast in showjumping and dressage.
But the wait for an individual showjumping victory in the Olympics continues on as the men who had that golden touch just two days ago came up short on Wednesday.
It was, as Nick Skelton, the man who could have broken the jinx that has hung around the British showjumping neck for the entire history of the Games, said 'a heartbreaker'.
With only six clears from the first round, it was odds on that Britain, who had two of those clears, would have a medal of some descripiton. Golden was the preference.
But TeamGB, after so much glory on Monday and Tuesday, came up dry this time as both Skelton and Scott Brash, the young Edinburgh-born rider making his Games debut, both had fences down.
The first of those clear rounds, Ireland's Cian O'Connor, should have had a shot at the gold with eventual winner Steve Guerdat, of Switzerland, but his second clear round of the day was an extraordinarily unlucky 0.02 seconds outside the 80sec time limit, incurring him one penalty.
That was the same score as silver medalist Gerco Schroder, of Holland, who went 14th out of the 22 riders and had to sit biting his nails for a quarter-of-an-hour before getting a shot at the runner-up jump-off with O'Connor which he took.
With Frenchman Olivier Guillon also failing to put his foot on the podium, Brash followed Guerdat but the clatter of timber to the floor and the groans of the capacity crowd at Greenwich Park signalled the end to his shot.
Germany's Marcus Ehning also fell by the wayside with two fences down and so it fell on the shoulders of Skelton to make him and his aptly named horse Big Star the history makers.
The British Olympic equestrian history books are littered with those who tried and medalled but did not stand on top of the podium.
Way back in 1972 at the Munich Olympics, Ann Moore, riding Psalm, won silver behind Italy's Graziano Mancinelli.
And in Mexico City four years earlier, Marion Coakes, riding Stroller, also took silver, with David Broome, who won bronze in 1960 on Sunsalve, getting third again on Mister Softee.
So it was up to Skelton to make more Olympic history for Britain in a fortnight of landmark achievements around London.
He rode well for seven fences, although he had to ask Big Star to stretch at the combination fourth fence. But, at the appropriately named Cutty Sark fence, his gold hopes were sunk as Big Star caught the top rail and thumped it to the floor.
Skelton rushed through to join Big Star backstage, presumably vent his anger and frustration with family and friends, and all he would say about the performance was: "Sport can be a heartbreaker".
Earlier, Britain's third rider, team gold medalist Ben Maher, needed a clear round to have any outside chance of a medal after having a fence down in the first round.
The 28-year-old from Enfield, riding Triple X, was going well until, at the fence seven combination, he stuttered and had a pole down, leaving the horse and jockey down the final list in equal ninth at the end on eight faults.
For 54-year-old Skelton, though, this may be the end of the Olympics road. One of showjumping's biggest names has suffered with back and hip operations in the past and whether he can make the 2016 Olympics in Brazil is questionable.
Big Star, on the other hand, should be in mint condition for 2016 so at least one of them should have another shot at the Games.
Follow the London Olympic Games with Gary's blogs here on Sportsvibe, at www.walesandwest.com and also on Facebook (Gary Baker) and Twitter @wwmedia
