Jack Whitaker scores his first win at HOYS in the Dallamires Stables Cup
Friday 06 October 2023
.jpg "Jack Whitaker scores his first win at HOYS in the Dallamires Stables Cup")
Jack Whitaker left the best until last in Friday’s feature Dallamires Stables Cup to win from final draw with Equine America Q Paravatti N to register his first win at Horse of the Year Show.
“It’s really nice to get in my first win here. I never had much luck on ponies and in the last few years I’ve been there or thereabouts. Lately I’ve been second a lot of times, I was second in the Newcomers the other night,” said Jack.
Twenty-seven riders initially tackled course-designer Kelvin Bywater’s technical 1.55m track with square oxers and tall verticals of this two-round competition with the top seven qualifying for the second round. But only six returned with Scott Brash’s beautifully controlled, easy round on the talented Hello Valentino taking an early lead.
Italy’s Lorenzo de Luca wiped more than three seconds off the time and looked to be sitting comfortably in the top spot on Jappeloup. But Jack had other ideas. Using his final draw to maximum effect, Jack executed a deceptively fast, smooth round to wipe 1.59 seconds from the time.
“I watched a few in the collecting ring [on the screen] and knew the really quick ones were faster than Lorenzo but had one or two down so I thought the class wasn’t that fast anyway and I just did my round. She’s not that slow but she’s a bit difficult to contain so I usually end up slower as I’m trying to slow her down all the time but she was in a nice rhythm and jumped well,” said Jack, on the Quality Time TN x Indoctro 11-year-old.
“She’s full of life and as soon as I say go, she’s gone! That’s the problem, as soon as I let her go she goes too fast. I’ve definitely got Grand Prix aims with her, you never get to the end of her, she’s full of blood and energy. My dad [Michael] thought as I’d been second a few times I might really go for the win and blow her brains; he kept saying just keep it as smooth as possible, get your rhythm and keep the canter and don’t try and move out of your rhythm. I think I did that.”
HOYS, NEC, Birmingham – 6 October, 2023
Dallamires Stables Cup 1.55m
1st Jack Whitaker (GBR) & Equine America Q Paravatti N – 0/0 - 35.77 seconds
2nd Lorenzo de Luca (ITA) & Jappeloup – 0/0 - 37.36 seconds
3rd Scott Brash (GBR) & Hello Valentino – 0/0 - 40.83 seconds
Image: 1st Class Images
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