Horse of the Year Show 2007: six-year-old championship, HOYS Classic

Laura Renwick is used to breaking records and she made another piece of history on Friday afternoon when she became the only person to win the newcomers and six-year-old championships at the same show.

Laura and Sandra Keaveney’s Beluga II had to share the newcomers honours, but they became the clear six-year-old champions, winning by more than 3sec from first draw of a six-horse jump-off.

“If anyone had asked me at the start of the show which class I would be happiest to win it would be this one,” said a delighted Laura, whose husband, John, was the first winner of this class in 1999.

The temperature got even hotter in the HOYS Classic, a speed class with 4sec added for every fence down. It looked for a long time as though Cian O’Connor would score his second win of the show after a flying round on the scopey grey Killard Horizon, but the Irishman had to settle for third place.

The crowd raised the roof when penultimate-drawn Geoff Billington took the lead on George Babes’s Lanzelot, but no sooner had they settled down than they were cheering the winning round from Dutch master craftsman Eric van der Vleuten on Audi’s Owendal.

This mare is beautifully schooled and she allowed Eric to take the shortest route.

“She is very fast,” he said, with masterly understatement.

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