Equestrianism: Whitakers in family dispute

MICHAEL WHITAKER, the new leader in the world jumping rankings, was quick to reaffirm his superiority when winning yesterday's two international contests at the Horse of the Year Show. He defeated his elder brother, John, when winning the Whitbread International Cup on Everest My Mesieur and then completed the double by taking the Coomes Bookmaker Stakes on Monsanta.

Whitaker had not meant to ride 19-year-old Monsanta last night. But the mare Lifestyle, his intended partner, was lame when she came off the lorry on arrival here yesterday. Monsanta normally finds the Wembley Arena too small but the gelding coped admirably in the confined spaces.

Geoff Glazzard won two national contests yesterday but it could not compare with the heady days of 10 years ago when he won three major international classes here.

Glazzard's winning partners were the seven-year-old stallion, It's The Business (successful in a section of the National Grade A) and the five-year-old mare, Pennwood Fleetway (Radiols Newcomers Championship winner).

Both horses represent bright hopes for Glazzard, who suffered a bitter disappointment in 1984 when Apollo's owner, Linda Jones, took the horse away from him and gave the ride to Nick Skelton. The bay was to gain a host of international victories, including two Hickstead Derbies, with Skelton in the saddle.

Glazzard rode some good old horses, notably Fred Hartill's Pennwood Forgemill, at the end of their careers. Another of Hartill's horses, Pennwood Fleetway, could help him to climb back up the ladder. Considering her youth, Fleetway 'settled in fantastically' jumping in the confined Wembley Arena for the first time for victory.

Results, Sporting Digest, page 37