Teenager Robert Whitaker provided his famous father with the best possible boost last night when winning the feature Millennium Challenge at the Olympia showjumping championships on his first appearance in the international classes at the London fixture.
The 17-year-old's father John, one of Britain's most popular riders, is still recovering in hospital in Uppsala, Sweden, after suffering a brain haemorrhage at the Stockholm show two weeks ago. He is expected to be discharged in the next few days and will spend Christmas in a Sheffield hospital, but was sitting up in bed watching his son on Eurosport last night.
"I spoke to him before I went into the ring", Robert said after claiming the £3,000 jackpot, "and he told me to make sure I went faster. I had planned to just jump round quietly, but he said I had to go for it, so I did."
Young Robert slashed three-quarters of a second off what looked like an unbeatable target set only minutes earlier by his uncle Michael.
Another Olympia debutante, Cameron Hanley, made a promising start when picking up £700 in prizemoney after finishing fifth and sixth in the two opening classes, although he failed to get through to last night's jump-off with four down.
Hanley finished sixth behind Michael Whitaker in the Christmas Candle Stakes, on his Millstreet Grand Prix winner, Ballaseyr Leonardo. Peter Charles missed out on fifth place with a fence down, ending up ninth with Traxdata Corrada.
Charles is lying third in the World Cup western European league after finishing third with Traxdata Carnavelly in the Geneva qualifier last weekend. He and Hanley will be jumping in tonight's eliminator, aiming for a place on the startlist in tomorrow's London World Cup round.
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