Maldon jumping star takes Hickstead title

Monday 23 June 2025

Laura Renwick has won the Al Shira’aa Hickstead Derby Meeting’s Breen Equestrian Beethoven Seven- and Eight-Year-Old Championship from a field of eighteen competitors with NFS Top Gun, who was previously victorious here as a six-year-old.

“He’s just getting better and better,” said Laura. “Though weirdly, he went in there today and felt quite green – he’d jumped in the International Arena as a six-year-old, but he went in today like, ‘oh my god!’ – like he hadn’t seen it before.”

But, she continues, “he grew in confidence as he went round, and by the jump-off, he was back to normal again. It’s funny what that ring can do to horses!”

Laura, who’s based in Maldon, Essex, has long been a stalwart fixture at the famous All England Jumping Course at Hickstead – and, she confesses, bringing these young horses along is every bit as exciting as tackling the biggest classes with her top campaigners.

“This horse is a home-bred, and I think anyone who produces horses will tell you that that’s extra special,” she said. “I rode both his parents, which is even better.”

NFS Top Gun’s sire, Top Dollar VI, won the London International Horse Show Puissance as just an eight-year-old with Laura back in 2008, while his mother, Beluga, enjoyed international success over top-level tracks. But which high-flying parent does Top Gun most resemble?

“Both, and neither,” laughs Laura. “I would say he’s got the attitude of his father. Top Dollar had all the ability in the world, and he was very adaptable, but he was his own person and you had to go with him a little bit, while Beluga was known for her speed and was incredibly careful, with a very good brain. Top Gun has picked the good bits of both of them – he’s just very special.”

Laura also finished third with Top Star C, who isn’t a product of her boutique breeding programme but is a maternal half-brother to Top Dollar VI, proving the consistency in the family lines.

“He’s by Nick Skelton’s Big Star, and I watched the Big Star movie the other night, and this might be a bit cliche, but I thought, ‘gosh, he’s so like Big Star’,” she says. “The way he goes, the way he looks. I’ve ridden a lot of horses in my time, and he really does find it all effortless.”

Image: Boots and Hooves Photography

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