He won the opening event in a competition that is due to continue tomorrow and conclude on Sunday (April 7).

Before the 36-year-old former double champion cantered into the ring, third-last to go with Alamo, a Belgian whitewash looked likely with Pieter Devos, Olivier Philippaerts and Francois Mathy Jr  holding the top three places after brilliant runs over the 13-fence course.

Defending champions, America’s Beezie Madden and her 13-year-old stallion Breitling LS, had just dropped the very last fence, adding three seconds to what would have been a super-fast time of 60.74sec and dropping to 10th position at the end of day one.

Guerdat clocked 61.28, but without error, for his win, squeezing Devos and his gelding, Apart, out of pole position by just three-hundredths of a second.

It was the perfect beginning for the Swiss to the seasonal finale that brings together riders from all around the globe.

"Bianca is my number one choice for the Olympics next year, so I thought maybe on the way to there she doesn’t need to do all the Championships," Guerdat said.

"I thought if I have a slightly small chance with Alamo I will take it."

The London 2012 individual Olympic champion has won the Jumping World Cup title twice before, first under the bright lights of Las Vegas in 2015 and then the following year in Gothenburg.

"We can expect a lot of places to move around, it always changes a lot on the second day," Guerdat pointed out. 

"I think a mistake is much more important tomorrow than today. 

"Everything looks good today but everything can look much different tomorrow."