Trevor Breen’s winning streak continues, taking the Grandstand Trophy at Horse of the Year Show (HOYS), riding Adventure de Kannan.
Pick their own line
Out of 31 starters, 11 made it through to the jump-off, where riders could pick their own line. They had to jump seven fences, including one double, but the rest was up to them.
Will Funnell was first to go and set the pace with a great clear in 24.75sec with Billy Angelo. However, the times got faster as the competition progressed.
It looked like speed queen Nicole Pavitt would take the lead with Our Duchess, when she tore around the course. But a pole at the last cost her two time penalties, for a total of 24.70sec.
John Whitaker, who won the Horse Radar Stakes earlier in the day, obviously meant business. He went flat out with Argento who tried his heart out for the rider, to cross the finishing line in a time of 24.12sec.
Unorthodox route
Second last to go was Trevor Breen with his one-eyed wonder horse. The Irish rider took an new, slightly unorthodox route, which saw him knock more than two seconds off John’s time to win the class (21.79sec)
This put John into second place, Tim Gredley was third and Nicole took the fourth spot.
Trevor told H&C he planned his jump-off earlier in the afternoon, with an easier route as a back-up.
“I saw the other guys go and thought I needed to do the hard one to win,” said Trevor. “So I said to the owner Karen Swan as I went in, ‘Easy or hard?’ and she told me to go with my gut. It was ‘all duck and no dinner’ so we went with the hard one and it paid off.”
On a high
It’s been a great show for Trevor, who had adouble winin the Seven-Year-Old Championsipand theAddington Manor Talent Seekers titleon Classic III at the beginning of the week.
“What makes it all the more special is Addy goes back to Karen after this show for his winter break,” said Trevor. “I really wanted to finish on a high so to do that at HOYS is a huge deal.
Addy is going to “jump cross poles and do riding club stuff” with Karen before coming back to Trevor’s yard in Bedfordshire at Christmas to gear up for the Atlantic Tour in Portugal in February.
“He’s 14 now and he’s best when he’s fresh so I choose my shows,” he said. “He doesn’t owe me anything – he’s been a fantastic horse. I want to keep him going for as long as I can. I’ll do the shows that count and hopefully keep winning them.”