John Whitaker Dazzles the opposition

John Whitaker raised the roof when he produced a round of daring brilliance with Mandy Hall's and his own grey mare Dazzle II at Olympia this evening in the H&M Ivy Stakes.

Talking afterwards John commented "The horse has been jumping well all week and I've just been biding my time patiently.  I got a good draw in this class so I saw it as my chance. Pius (Schwizer, third) went fast enough early on, and then Robert (Smith, second) is always quick in these situations, but I knew I could get the time as long as the fences stayed up. Dazzle hasn’t got a long stride, but she is really fast.”
 

The vociferous nature of the crowd’s response to John’s victory reflected the enormous popularity of this brilliant, yet modest, horseman. “The crowd here is unbelievable,” he said. “I travel the world jumping, but you don’t get crowd enthusiasm like this anywhere else.”
 

Another show jumping dynasty was born when Robert Murphy, 11, went one better than his father Peter, international rider and trainer to the British Eventing team, winning the H & M Mini Stakes, a class in which Peter finished second when he was about the same age as his on.

Robert produced a brilliantly accurate round on Greenfield Chinook, to beat Jodie Hall-McAteer on My Little Sweetheart by a miniscule 0.16sec.
 

“My dad told me that my first round was quite good but that I’d have to be a lot tougher in the jump-off because there were other ponies that were faster than mine, so that’s why I cut so many corners,” explained Robert, who says he might like to become a vet when he’s older.

For further information and full results from Olympia please visit www.olympiahorseshow.com
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