In 2019, 19-year-old Michael Pender became the youngest ever rider to win the Hickstead Derby. Victoria Goff sat down to chat with him about his win
The honour of being the youngest winner of the Hickstead Derby has long been subject to a bit of confusion. Some have proclaimed a 20-year-old Michael Whitaker to be the record holder, though in fact the 1967 winner Marion Coakes was a few months younger when she secured her Derby win.
But in 2019, in the most recent running of the Al Shira’aa Derby, the debate was silenced altogether when the then 19-year-old Irish rider Michael Pender claimed the win and scribed his name in the record books. It was a remarkable victory, not just for the youthfulness of the winning rider, but also because neither horse nor jockey had competed in an international jumping Derby beforehand. Coincidentally, the last rider to win in their first year of trying was Michael Whitaker, nearly four decades earlier, on Owen Gregory.
Mikey’s winning horse, Hearton Du Bois Halleux, was best known as a bit of a Puissance specialist, with wins at Dublin and Liverpool under his belt in 2018 as well as a victory at Bolesworth just 10 days before his Hickstead debut. He had more than proved his scope and bravery, but what he would make of the Al Shira’aa Derby’s unique fences and lengthy track remained to be seen.
The first test he faced in Hickstead’s Longines International Arena was the Derby Trial, the class in which all Derby contenders must qualify. The course features a number of Hickstead’s fixed obstacles, including the less steep side of the Derby Bank, the water jump and two elements of the Devil’s Dyke, and often the class acts as a good indicator of form for Sunday’s showcase. But for Mikey and Hearton Du Bois Halleux (that’s Harold to his friends), it wasn’t the most auspicious of debuts.
“The Trial didn’t quite go to plan,” recalls Mikey, who completed the course but finished on 20 faults in 33rd position, worryingly close to the qualification cut-off placing of top 35. “When he’s jumping a course he can get a bit strong the further round he goes.”
The twisting track of the Derby Trial with its 17 jumping efforts all coming up quickly wasn’t the best for the strong-willed Belgian Warmblood stallion by Nonstop, who tends to take a hold. But the Al Shira’aa Derby itself, with a generous time limit and plenty of space between each jump, would prove to be better suited to his skills. “It’s a lot easier when you can set him up one fence at a time,” says Mikey, who adds that’s what makes him so good at the Puissance.
While Pender had competed at Hickstead in the summer of 2018, he had left the showground on the Saturday – so the 2019 renewal was his first chance to see the famous fences up close. “It was big!” he says, recalling that course walk. “But I was always quietly confident in him, I knew he could jump it.”
He walked it with fellow Irishman David Simpson, who had previously ridden Hearton Du Bois Halleux and competes several other horses for owner Paul van den Bosch. The fences that caused Pender concern were the usual suspects, the Devil’s Dyke and the upright Derby rails following the water. The Bank, however, didn’t overly faze him. “When I was walking the course, I spoke to David Simpson and a few of the lads, and they said when I was coming down the Bank to make sure I put my leg on, to not let him fall in a heap at the bottom. But as soon as I put my leg on, he leapt off from a bit too high up! But he gathered up and jumped the upright at the bottom so well. He was unbelievable.”
The resulting photo was quite spectacular, but it wasn’t the only gasp-worthy moment during their round. Having cleared the Bank, then put in a foot-perfect display over the Devil’s Dyke, Mikey really pushed on to the water and met it on a decidedly long distance. As Harold took off a stride out, it seemed impossible that he could land without getting his feet wet, but not only did he clear the wide open water, he also managed to collect in time to clear the Derby Rails, one of the fences that had concerned Mikey the most during the course walk.
Having made easy work of the double of gates and the final oxer, Mikey’s clear round guaranteed a jump-off against Derby Trial winner Shane Breen. When the ultra-consistent Harriet Nuttall matched their jumping clears, it meant the Hickstead crowd was going to be treated to its first three-way jump-off since 1993.
While Harold can look quite frenetic in his jumping, his tendency to get strong and Mikey’s need to keep his exuberance under control means he’s not the fastest against the clock, so he knew he was up against it, particularly since both Breen and Nuttall were hugely experienced Derby campaigners. His technique was to go for a clear round, and hope the others faulted.
First to go, Shane set off at a strong pace on Golden Hawk, hoping to pile pressure on his rivals, but when he knocked the Derby rails and the first part of the double of gates, his dream of winning the Derby looked to be over. Mikey came in next, managing to keep Harold cool to net a vital double clear – albeit with another dramatic leap over the water.
He’d done exactly what he set out to do, and now only Harriet and A Touch Imperious could stop him from claiming the Boomerang Trophy. But a foot in the Open Water meant they had to settle for runner-up spot once again, with Mikey claiming the £34,650 first prize. “It’s what every rider dreams of,” he says. “I didn’t ever imagine he’d win, but I knew the class would suit him and we’d have some kind of a shout. But for it to actually happen was a completely different story.”
In making such an impact at Hickstead at such a tender age, Mikey follows in the footsteps of fellow Irish talents such as Bertram Allen, who was 19 when he finished second in the Longines BHS King George V Gold Cup in 2014, and Michael Duffy, who was 18 when he won the first of two back-to-back All England Grands Prix, before going on to be part of the winning Irish team in the Nations Cup leg in 2018.
Like Duffy, Pender has his sights set on senior team selection, and with an impressive string of horses and the kind of cool-headedness that’s needed for top-level showjumping, he appears to have all the right attributes. His background is typical of so many young riders – his mother rode, ran a riding school, and produced and sold ponies, so Mikey naturally started riding at an early age. He was a member of the Carlow Branch of the Pony Club and went on to compete on ponies, making his Pony European debut in Arezzo in 2013. The following two years he picked up team silvers in Malmo and Millstreet, and went on to represent his country at Junior and Young Rider level.
He truly announced himself on the world stage in 2016 when winning the Silver and Bronze medals in the five-year-old final at the World Breeding Jumping Championships at Lanaken in Belgium, despite being just 16 years old, riding Irish Sport Horses bred by the Hughes family and owned by Team Z7.
A student at Knockbeg College, Mikey initially tried to combine his schooling with his riding career, but when he returned from a spell working for Team Z7 in the United Arab Emirates he decided it was time to concentrate on horses. “School was not really my thing – I went in, I kept my head down and stayed out of trouble, but I was always looking out of the window thinking and planning about the horses.”
He began working full-time for Olympic showjumper Marion Hughes and her husband Miguel Bravo. The Hughes Horse Stud is perfectly situated, just 20 minutes from his childhood home, and Mikey benefits from their immense support, training and mentorship as well as getting the chance to ride some extremely good horses. Like Pender, Marion has a stellar record at Hickstead, having won the Queen Elizabeth II Cup in 1995 and 1996 with the great Flo Jo, so it’s little wonder her protégé has gone on to follow in her footsteps. Marion describes Mikey as a ‘genius on a horse’ so it’s obviously a partnership that benefits all parties.
His recent successes have seen Mikey leap into the world’s top 100 riders and slowly climb up the rankings. In 2019 he was selected to be part of the international Young Riders Academy, which chooses a group of talented young equestrians each year and helps them with their showjumping careers. It’s led to Mikey getting some incredible opportunities, such as the chance to work and train with Jos Lansink and invitations to compete at the CSI5* in Geneva, where he finished second in the Trophée de Genève and 11th in the Rolex Grand Prix on HHS Burnchurch, plus an invitation to take part in the Longines Global Champions League, representing the St. Tropez Pirates.
After their Derby win, Mikey and Hearton Du Bois Halleux went on to win the Olympia and Liverpool Puissances, while Mikey made the most of an invitation to compete at the Al Shira’aa International Horse Show in January 2020 where he picked up a number of top three placings with Casanova Van Overis Z and HHS Fortune. With the latter ride, he also won the Al Shira’aa Derby of Abu Dhabi, becoming the first rider to win both of Al Shira’aa’s Derby classes – as well as winning the first car of his career and getting to ride a camel in the prizegiving!
After a two-year hiatus for Hickstead’s iconic class, Mikey hopes to bring Hearton Du Bois Halleux back to try to defend his Derby title. “Harold has all the good attributes you’d want in a Derby horse. He’s brave, he has all the scope and he tries to be so careful,” says Mikey. “I don’t jump him too much at home, he knows his job at this stage. He’s hacked out, he spends lots of time in the field, and he knows he’s the king. He’s a fantastic character in the stable, he’s always straight over to the door to see you, and he’s super friendly.”
Grand Prix wins and championship medals may be the ultimate focus for every professional showjumper, but there remains something extra special about winning classes like the Al Shira’aa Derby or the Puissance – those are the competitions that resonate most with the crowds, the ones that stand out in the memory. In Hearton Du Bois Halleux, Mikey has found a horse that excels in both.
Whether the pair are riding down towards the vast red wall or the 10ft 6in slope of the Derby Bank, Mikey has every confidence in his striking bay stallion. “Riding him, you just know you’re going to get to the other side. He doesn’t even feel like he’s stretching himself, and there aren’t many horses who can jump clear round the Derby but feel like they’re not even making much of an effort. It’s an amazing feeling, riding a horse like that.”
This article was first published in June 2022
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