THE dust had barely settled on Friday's triumphant Nations Cup before the Whitaker family had further cause to celebrate with an emotional victory for Robert in the Longines King George V Gold Cup on Vermento, who is owned by Caroline Blatchford and bred by the rider's father John.
An illustrious list of riders have their name etched on this solid gold trophy, including a hat-trick for John and a four-timer for his brother Michael. But it had been more than a quarter of a century since a Whitaker had lifted the King's Cup. However, in an exhilarating afternoon, Robert produced the sole double. ear to the delight of an already buoyed crowd to stake his place in Hickstead history.
"This is just amazing," said Robert, 40, who first jumped at the home of British showjumping as a toddler in the under-10 classes. "My dad bred Vermento and he's 10 now so we've put a lot of work into him. I've nurtured him for a couple of years, saving him and jumping a lot of 1.50m classes. I've never jumped a five-star grand prix on him before.
"I was actually really nervous going out for the first round because you never know what can happen in this ring. But it's a local show for me and he's jumped a lot of smaller classes in this ring, so he knows it quite well, which I think worked in his favour today."
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