Prater is British Young Rider Champion

Ryan Prater, 19, was clear winner of the Rybank Homes Young Riders Championship of Great Britain at the HOYS yesterday evening.

Partnering Vahagn de Lozanna, Prater scored the only double clear of the competition to take the £500 first prize. A particularly testing 1.45m first round track caught out a large majority of the field, and only four made it through to the second round.

But Prater’s victory depended on an unlucky four faults from Portia Howard and Oscar IX. A speedy 43.25 sec time would have earned 21-year-old Howard first place but it was not to be her day and Prater’s 45.16 sec clear pushed her into second position. Gemma Paternoster, 21, and Osiris tipped the last fence, finishing in a time of 48.21 sec to take third position. Joe Whitaker and Desdemona, who also made it into the jump off, clocked up 12 penalties, finishing in fourth place.

The Young Riders Championship is open to those who were one of the five members of the British Young Riders European Team 2006, one of the five members of the British Junior European Team 2006 and the top 10 combinations not in either team from the Young Riders Ranking List. Last year the class was won by Britain’s highest ranked female rider Ellen Whitaker on Henri de Here.

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