Robert rides to another HOYS title
4 October 2001
Robert Whitaker and Randi win the National Young Riders Championship at the Horse of the Year Show
Robert Whitaker kept his family’s name in lights when a superb jump-off round on Randi took the British Young Riders Championship at the Horse of the Year Show.
In a jump-off packed with European gold medallists, Robert’s round on the 17-year-old grey stallion was poetry in motion, beating the standard set by this year’s double young riders medallist James Davenport, on Florie Du Moulin by a full 3sec.
“Randi’s not getting any younger and this was the first time for a couple of months that he felt fresh,” said Robert, 18.
Keith Shore underlined his chances for the Horse & Hound Foxhunter final when he and the British-bred It’s Magic Max stormed to victory in the Thomas Bates & Son Seven-Year-Old Championship.
The big bay looked a class apart in a jump-off packed with horses that look certain to go on to international success, which delighted class sponsor Michael Bates, who established the series for that very reason.
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The earlier Squibb & Davies Junior Foxhunter Championship also went to form when 15-year-old Louise Pavitt carried on her magical season with a first-draw victory on Mark Samuels’s former eventing pony New York Blues.
A superbly ridden round saw Louise and “Blue” kill the class stone dead, as none of their 10 rivals could get near to their time.
