Copthorne rider takes Saturday morning Hickstead spoils

Monday 23 June 2025

Copthorne-based Nicole Pavitt took the spoils in Saturday morning’s Billy Stud Auction Five-Year-Old Jumping Championship, hosted in the International Arena at Hickstead.

The class aims to find and reward the young horses who could become mainstays of the British team in years to come. Today, that heralded horse was the exceptional Umberto 11 Van Het Geinsteide, who Nicole has been producing this past year for owners Amber and Neil Bundock.

The Bundocks, who’ve owned the five-year-old for three years, initially bought him off the back of nothing much more than a good omen: “He has the same name as Amber’s Young Rider horse, because he’s from the same stud, so it was really just a lucky buy,” said Nicole. “He was second in a four-year-old class here at Hickstead last summer, and he’s always been so consistent. We’ve taken him to Belgium, where he jumped lots of clear rounds.”

Today, she put his education so far to good use – as well as his natural abilities.

“I used his stride to our advantage; it’s so long that I could leave a stride out down some of the distances,” she explained.

The pair logged a final time of 26.5 seconds – over a second faster than second-placed Shane O’Meara and Miss Molly Malone IV of Ireland.

Image: Boots and Hooves Photography

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