Robert Whitaker won his second class of the show with an outstanding performance in the Christmas Eve Six Bar, the only rider to jump clear in the fifth round when the final fence went up to 2m (nearly 6ft 7in).

Robert Smith on Ronaldo and France’s Jean-Marc Nicolas (Joal de Madame) both hit the last fence, but Robert Whitaker conjured a prodigious leap from the tall, leggy chestnut Finbarr V, his ride in tomorrow night’s Puissance.

Finbarr has won 11 Puissance competitions in a row, and Robert had, fortuitously, remembered to back himself at Olympia’s on-course bookie. ‘Sometimes he’s really, fresh, like today, but he’s a big horse and he can get tired, and that’s when he feels a bit like a tractor,’ said Robert.

18-year-old William Whitaker, the youngest rider in the competition, pulled off a sensational victory in the Accenture Christmas Puissance when he was the only one of the three riders in the fifth and final round to clear the 2.16m wall and become the youngest ever winner of the Olympia puissance.Riding Insultech Leonardo, owned by his uncle Michael, for whom he rides, William kept his head in front of an enthralled and packed hall and had the crowd in raptures as he had the 10-year-old bay gelding soaring over the massive wall. Both Robert Whitaker, the 2-1 bookies’ favourite on Finbarr V , and Ireland’s Shane Breen with his Belfast puissance winner Lyssegan Clover Diamond, tipped a brick out of the wall.


RESULTS THE CHRISTMAS EVE SIX BAR (first round: 1.70 m)
1.Finbarr V Whitaker, Robert GBR 1500GBP 0 penalties 4th jump-off
2.Ronaldo Smith, Robert GBR 825GBP 4 penalties 4th jump-off
2.Joal de Madame Nicolas, Jean-Marc FRA 825GBP 4 penalties 4th jump-off
4.Cortaflex Mondriaan Funnell, William GBR 400GBP 4 penalties 2nd jump-off
4.Sinclaire Ahlmann, Christian GER 400GBP 4 penalties 2nd jump-off
4.Lincoln Zoer, Albert NED 400GBP 4 penalties 2nd jump-off
7.VDL Groep Issis du Marais Asten, Leopold van NED 200GBP 8 penalties 2nd jump-off
8.Parodie Houtzager, Marc NED 150GBP retired 2nd jump-off

RESULT THE ACCENTURE CHRISTMAS PUISSANCE (first round: 1.80 m)
1. Insul Tech Leonardo Whitaker, William GBR 4000 GBP 0 penalties 4th jump-off
2. Lyssegan Clover Diamond Breen, Shane IRL 2150 GBP 4 penalties 4th jump-off
2.Finbarr V Whitaker, Robert GBR 2150 GBP 4 penalties 4th jump-off
4.Casper O'Connor, Cian IRL 1200 GBP 4 penalties 3rd jump-off
5.Tresor V Guerdat, Steve SUI 600 GBP 4 penalties 2nd jump-off
5.Una II Williams, Guy GBR 600 GBP 4 penalties 2nd jump-off