Former eventer takes HOYS newcomers title

Swedish rider Fredrik Bergendorff opened this year’s HOYS with a stirring win in the Daniel Paul Newcomers Championship on the six-year-old Baretto.

Gloucestershire-based Fredrik formerly evented at top level but changed to show jumping three years ago. He was paying his first visit to the show and gained his biggest ever jumping prize when he and the German-bred grey beat Tim Stockdale on Richard Hooper’s Riley by less than 1sec. There were only three double clears in the 12-horse jump-off, with third going to Jane Kenny’s immaculate pathfinder on Jools Holland.

James Reveley, 15, took the Squibb & Davies Junior Foxhunter home to Saltburn in Cleveland after producing a fantastic jump-off round on Flame Of Tara. James, whose father Keith has recently taken over the racehorse training stables of James’s grandmother, Mary, now has his sights on being a jockey.

“I’m 16 on March and I’ll then be old enough for an apprentice’s license,” saud James, who beat Amanda Derbyshire (Woodside Entertainer) and Rebecca Hughes-French (Chocolate Supreme) in a blanket finish.

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