Australia go into the final day of eventing on the verge of claiming gold in the team and individual competitions at the Olympic Equestrian Centre in Deodoro.
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Chris Burton sits in the gold medal position in the individual ahead of Tuesday's final-leg showjumping while the Australians lead the teams event. Competition begins at 11pm AEST Tuesday.
Burton is out to become the first Australian to win an individual equestrian medal since Matt Ryan at Barcelona in 1992, when he also won an eventing team gold.
Victory in Rio would also see the Australians win the Olympic eventing team competition for the fourth time and the first since Sydney 2000 when current team member Stuart Tinney won gold.
Strong cross country performances on Monday have Australia on 150.30 penalties ahead of New Zealand (154.80) and France (161).
The leaderboard is closer in the individual race with Burton sitting on 37.60, fewer than four penalties (one show jumping rail) in front of Michael Jung of Germany who is on 40.90, while France's Astier Nicolas is third with 42.
The 34-year-old Burton was in second position after the first-leg dressage phase but a dominant cross country round has him set to join Ryan and Lawrence Morgan (Rome 1960) as the only Australians to win the eventing team and individual double at a Games.
Early leader William Fox-Pitt of Great Britain was relegated on the leaderboard after his horse had a refusal.
Burton was full of praise for his horse Santano II, competing in his first four-star event.
"For a horse with very little blood in his breeding, he is a rocket. So I'm delighted at this stage," Burton said.
Fellow Australian Sam Griffiths also completed a clear run, but picked up 6.8 time penalties and individually Griffiths sits in ninth position with a score of 53.10.
Tinney, riding Pluto Mio, was the third Australian up, adding only 2.8 time penalties to his dressage score.
"It was a nice track for him (Pluto Mio), I could get going a bit, get galloping a bit," said Tinney.
He said the team was cautious ahead of the jumping competition.
"Let's see what happens tomorrow, we need to leave the fences up." There was disappointment for final combination Shane Rose and CP Qualified, with two refusals eliminating them from the competition.
The Beijing Games silver medallist from eventing teams was just two fences from home.
In order for the team to remain in the competition, three out of four riders must complete the event.
