ON his very first trip around the Hickstead Derby, then 19-year-old Mikey Pender broke Michael Whitaker record by becoming the youngest ever winner of the class. Remarkably, it also the first time around the Derby for the 12-year-old gelding Hearton Du Bois Halleux, owned by Paul Van Den Bosch.

“The Hickstead Derby is a class you grow up watching on television. Since I was young, I always wanted to jump it in. It’s like the Aga Khan, one of those classes you want to do,” Pender said this week.

“You hope you have a chance going in there but you never think it’s actually going to happen, to win. All I could think of for the last five fences was ‘I wonder am I inside the time’. You know when you have never ridden a class like that before...I was just thinking ‘I am going to be clear here, I need to try and get inside the time allowed.’”

What was he feeling at the top of the bank? “David Simpson said to me, ‘Don’t let him creep all the way down, put your leg on and jump from off a little bit.’ But actually, he ended up jumping straight off it, he had only gone down two or three steps. But he reacted really well at the bottom and jumped the rails well.

“The Devil’s Dyke is definitely the trickiest fence. You have to get out on the rail, get everything slowed down and give yourself a good chance. He jumped it very good, he actually had a look at the tray in the middle which helped me at the last part.”

Pender was second to go in a three-way jump-off with Shane Breen and Harriet Biddick (Nuttall). What was the plan? “Brendan Doyle was with me and he said we would see what Shane does but the plan should be to jump a clear round. He said to make sure you try to be clear as not many people have been double clear and not won the Derby.

“I was just getting off at the boot check, I wasn’t even watching Harriet’s round when all my friends came running down and I knew it happened.”

Pender was aiming Hearton Du Bois Halleux at Hickstead again this season but will have to wait another year to defend his title.