John Whitaker joked that he had bred both horse and rider who won the Thistledown Investments HOYS six-bar, as Robert Whitaker and Vermento cleared 1.90m to take the title.
Three other combinations had gone through to round five; John on Sharid, Shane Breen on Vistogrand and Joseph Trunkfield on Cruze, but Robert and the son of John’s former top ride Argento were the only ones to finish clear.
“He loved it,” Robert said. “He’s not done a six-bar before so I was a bit sceptical but he jumped the first round pretty good, then every round he jumped better and better.”
Robert said the nine-year-old felt confident, and the trust between the pair was evident as they tackled the line of verticals.
“For me, it worked quite well as the first three distances were quite short, then it opened out for the last one so I could push him on a bit and he quite liked that,” he added.
“Aregento was the number one sire in the world at one point, and he’s out of a mare I jumped 1.50s on so he’s very, very well bred, and I think he’s really a horse for the future. He’s a bit of a bigger horse so it’s taken a bit of time than it might normally but we’ve had some good results at 1.50m and I think he’s improving all the time. I’ve got high hopes for him.”
Joint second went to John and Sharid and Shane and Vistogrand, who both cleared the biggest last fence in the HOYS six-bar but had one of the earlier rails down.
“I was lucky the last round and maybe unlucky this time,” said John, adding when asked about his son’s round: “I bred the horse and the rider!”
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