United States Eventing Association

A Surprise Win for Bradford on a Special Thoroughbred in the Dutta Corp. USEA YEH East Coast 5-Year-Old Championship

Elkton, Md.—Oct. 18—The Thoroughbred mare Rose Traveler (War Dancer x Nashwan Rose) was the last to be seen in the 2024 Dutta. Corp USEA Young Event Horse (YEH) East Coast 5-Year-Old Championship, and she definitely lived up to the age-old adage, “saved the best for last.” The mare was ranked 31st in the conformation and 22nd in the dressage, but her jumping and galloping efforts absolutely impressed the judges, launching her up the leaderboard to claim the champion title.

Owner Emily Bradford was “Rose’s” pilot for the day and was absolutely in shock.

“I love this horse, but this was a total surprise!” she said as Rose soaked up all of the attention she was getting from Bradford’s impressive support crew.

Bradford adopted Rose a year ago by happenstance. While she was bred for racing on turf, she had yet to be started under saddle.

“A friend of mine wound up with her, and she needed a home,” recalled Bradford. “So I said, ‘Sign me up! I’m coming to grab her.’ ”

Once she was well started, Bradford decided to aim the young mare towards the YEH Championships.

“She does everything so easily,” said Bradford of her decision. “I love the young horses, and I love Thoroughbreds. I love a good Thoroughbred mare, especially. Even though she didn't have a ton of experience coming into the spring, she did everything easy. And I just said, ‘Let's give it a try!’ I love being at Fair Hill, so of course, that's always the goal, to get to Fair Hill one way or another. And so here we are, lucky enough we got here.”

She feels that Rose’s personality and work ethic helped her work her way to this top placing.

“She's a really, really cool mare. She's funny in her stall, and she sometimes likes to bite a little bit, but other than that, she's been a dream to train,” she said. “She's been just so agreeable, and she shows up for work every day. She’s just a really nice horse.”

Judge Christian Schacht (GER) evaluated Rose in both the conformation yesterday and the jumping and galloping today. He chimed in on the fact that the mare placed lower in the conformation, but thoroughly impressed them in the second half of the competition today.

“It’s a nearly perfect horse, but it's not this ‘wow horse,” said Schacht. “So if you compare it to cars— if you can have the fancy car, like a Ferrari, or a Japanese car, nobody's going to buy the Japanese car. But at the end of the day, the Japanese car has all the stuff you need. It's an easy, affordable car, and it's doing the job. The horse was spicy enough, and that's something that I cannot see during the conformation– when the horse has the attitude. And we saw that today when she started to canter. The horse picked up the canter and was right on spot. In the cross-country, the rider was amazing. She just sped up, the horse was sitting still and let the fences come to it. They integrated the fence into the strides, so the horse had a perfect technique. And the horse being compact, it was easy to keep in balance. I love the freedom you saw in its gallop. The horse didn’t speed up, it just became bigger and bigger. It was so fun to watch.”

In addition to champion honors, Rose was also awarded the Born in America award, which is presented to the highest-scoring 5-year-old at the Championship that is American-bred, the American Thoroughbred award, which is presented to the highest-scoring American-bred Thoroughbred in the field, and the Thoroughbred Incentive Program (TIP) award.

This year’s reserve champion horse took the early lead in the division and held onto that placing until the very end when Rose nudged the Irish Sport Horse gelding Centerfold (Sligo Candy Boy x Temple Polly) out by just 0.33 of a point.

“Playboy,” who is owned and was ridden by owner Alyssa Phillips, had the highest general impression score of the entire field with a score of 9.50. Phillips first met the young gelding this summer when in Europe for the USEF Developing Rider’s Tour.

“I was looking for horses, but I was not looking for a 5-year-old. It just happened,” she recalled. “I was at Austin O'Connor's barn, and he said to me, ‘I have this 5-year-old in the field. Do you want to see him?’ He didn't have shoes on or anything, but he pulled him out, and I saw his stunning face. He's just a beautiful, beautiful 5-year-old. So Austin rode him, and then I rode him for about four minutes, and it was done. To pull a 5-year-old out of the field with no shoes on and to have somebody get on and ride him around and him not do like, a single bad thing, I knew he had a very good brain, so I bought him off of that. And yeah, he's exceeded my expectations in every way.”

Prior to Phillips’ purchase of Playboy, Irish rider Robbie Kearns had won the 4-year-old Irish Young Horse Championship on him, so it just made sense to gear him up for the U.S. equivalent in his 5-year-old year.

“I've always really admired the YEH program, and this was actually the first time that I've had a horse in the program that I was able to compete,” said Phillips. “I think it's such a great education for these horses. I know after coming here and being in the atmosphere, he's going to come out so much better next year because it's been a very great learning weekend for him. I really love this program—it really builds the horses up for the future.”

Sydney Shinn’s homebred Irish Sport Horse mare Sunshine And Whiskey (Bridon Beale Street x Lady of Cork) was presented with the Safe Harbour Award. This award is presented to the horse with the most graceful and rider-friendly performance throughout the championship.

Fellow YEH Judge Sally Ike was beyond thrilled with the quality of horses they saw in the 39-horse field today.

“Do you see my smile?” she said with a laugh. “I'll be looking forward to seeing what these horses that we saw today do in the future. When I looked at the scores yesterday [from the East Coast 4-year-old Championships], they were all very close. I am betting they are today as well.”

While Ike wasn’t judging the East Coast YEH Championships last year, she did spend both days evaluating the horses in both the 4- and 5-year-old Championships.

“I remembered I really liked Maddie Tempkin’s horse [Fernhill Bertus who was the East Coast 5-year-old Reserve Champion in 2023], and he was just third at Morven [Leesburg, Virginia] in the [USEF/USEA] Developing Horse Championships.”

In addition to the competition today, the Championship also served as an opportunity for testing and training for future YEH judges through the YEH New Judge Education Program. Marilyn Payne, a huge proponent of the YEH program and a judge from yesterday’s 4-year-old Championships, led both sessions.

“It was great because we saw such variety,” said Payne. “We had top quality horses that we could give nine 8s and 9s to— and we even gave a couple 10s—and then we had horses that were nice horses, but they were green, and they have to learn how to judge that and still evaluate the horse’s overall impression when you know the horse has some talent, but it’s just not quite there yet on its training. Most of today’s testing judges were really right on— I couldn’t believe how close they were in the scores that were given.”

You can learn more about YEH scoring in this recent article. If you want to learn more about becoming a certified YEH judge, click here.

The Dutta Corp. USEA YEH Championships will now make its way to California for the West Coast Championships, which take place at Twin Rivers Ranch in Paso Robles, California, on Oct. 25-26.

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About the USEA Young Event Horse (YEH) Program

The Young Event Horse (YEH) Program was first established in 2004 as an eventing talent search. Much like similar programs in Europe, the YEH program was designed to identify young horses aged four- and five-years-old, that possess the talent and disposition to, with proper training, excel at the uppermost levels of the sport. The ultimate goal of the program is to distinguish horses with the potential to compete at the four- and five-star levels, but many fine horses that excel at the lower levels are also showcased by the program.

The YEH program provides an opportunity for breeders and owners to exhibit the potential of their young horses while encouraging the breeding and development of top event horses for the future. The program rewards horses who are educated and prepared in a correct and progressive manner. At qualifying events, youngsters complete a dressage test and a jumping/galloping/general impression phase. At Championships, young horses are also evaluated on their conformation in addition to the dressage test and jumping/galloping/general impression phase. Click here to learn more about the Young Event Horse Program.

The USEA would like to thank ARMA, Bates Saddles, HorseWeek, The Jockey Club, Kerrits, Parker Equine Insurance, Schneiders Saddlery, SmartPak, and Standlee for sponsoring the Young Event Horse Program. Additionally, the USEA would like to thank The Dutta Corp., Title Sponsor of the Young Event Horse Championships.

About The Holekamp/Turner Grant

Founded in 2015 by Timothy and Cheryl Holekamp of New Spring Farm and Christine and T.J. Turner of Indian Creek Farm, the Holekamp/Turner Grant provides a USEA Young Event Horse (YEH) Championship competitor with the opportunity to represent the United States at the FEI Eventing World Breeding Championships in the 7-year-old CCIYH3*-L Championship at Mondial du Lion in Le Lion d’Angers, France. With the sole purpose of paving a clear pathway for U.S. team horses to progress in the sport of eventing, recipients who are North American-bred will be awarded the full cash grant of $17,500, while imported horses are awarded $8,000. Additionally, The Dutta Corp. offers a prize to the Holekamp/Turner Grant recipient, consisting of a round trip flight from the Eastern United States to Europe.