United States Eventing Association

Fredericks and Headley Britannia Crowned Rolex Champions

Headley Britannia leapt into the record books on Sunday afternoon as she became the first mare to win the Rolex Kentucky CCI4*. With longtime owner and rider Australian Lucinda Fredericks in the tack, ‘Little Brit’ became the second horse in history to win all three of the top CCI4* events in the world – Badminton, Burghley, and now Rolex Kentucky.

The spritely 15.3-hand Irish Sport Horse mare didn’t put a foot wrong in the final phase of the challenging event, and left all the rails neatly in their cups to take home the coveted Rolex Trophy, $80,000 in prize money, a Rolex watch, and a slew of other prizes.

‘Little Brit’ won Burghley in 2006, Badminton in 2007, and were members of the Olympic silver medal Australian team last summer. Aside from Pippa Funnell’s Primmore’s Pride, no other event horse has won all three legs of the “Rolex Grand Slam.” Since Funnell won all three events consecutively (on two different horses), she was awarded $250,000 for her accomplishment.

Lucinda’s husband Clayton Fredericks won the Rolex Kentucky CCI4* event in 2007. Fredericks joked that they investigated to see whether or not this “marital Grand Slam win” would count, but unfortunately it didn’t.

Fredericks nearly didn’t make the trip across the Atlantic to compete last weekend, but Clayton pushed her to come. “It could’ve been easier in some ways to just nip down the road to Badminton which is only an hour away, and it took a lot of effort, a lot of organization, a lot of understanding and frustrations, and I was quite stressed for the last month trying to organize it. To come here and experience this amazing place...well, to be honest, we don’t have anything like this in the UK, or in Europe. Clayton said, ‘You have to go to Kentucky, it’s just amazing.’” And the rest is history!

With her husband by her side all weekend, Fredericks felt primed for tackling Richard Jeffery’s show jumping course in the brand new main arena at the Kentucky Horse Park.

“I’ve been pretty focused all week,” said Fredericks. “I haven’t had any other people to worry about. Normally I do a lot of training so I have pupils at the same events with me. This week really came down to Brit and myself.”

Fredericks said that she knew Brit felt like a million bucks after jumping her first warm-up cross-rail, and was feeling very confident heading into the final phase. “To have that feeling and rapport and trust with the horse is very very rare,” explained Fredericks. “Clayton said to me, just go out, do your job and have fun…and I really did! Brit didn’t put a foot wrong in show jumping, and she’s going to go to a lot of people’s hearts; she’s certainly gone to ours.”

Lucinda's husband Clayton was on-hand to congratulate her during the press conference and share his insight on his wife's win. “To me, it just shows Lucinda’s tenacity and grit really because she never lets me get away with anything. At one stage in the household, I was the only one who’d been to Rolex Kentucky and won, so that’s straight out the window now,” joked Clayton, who’ll be competing at the upcoming Badminton CCI4*in a few weeks on The Frog.

Watch out for Team Fredericks and the rest of the Australian contingency as they prepare for next fall's Alltech World Equestrian Games, which will also be held at the Kentucky Horse Park. “We’re going to really look forward to coming back next year, with hopefully both Clayton and I on the Australian squad. We were both there in Hong Kong and came back with a silver medal and we are definitely going to be hungry for gold next year,” Fredericks added.

Fredericks and Brit took over the lead after cross-country from Germany’s Bettina Hoy and Ringwood Cockatoo, who picked up a few time faults over Michael Etherington-Smith’s course on Saturday.

Hoy and a few of the other international riders had to book it to the airport shortly after the awards ceremonies on Sunday afternoon, but mentioned that she could not be any prouder of Cockatoo and the way he performed all weekend. She also said that for years she had heard from so many of the European riders, including her husband Andrew who won Rolex in 2006, how wonderful Rolex Kentucky is, and it did live up to everything she has heard and she looks forward to returning.

18-year-old Cockatoo jumped well for a well-seasoned horse of his age, though he had a sticky moment with a hard rub at plank fence early on course, they turned out a double-clear round to hang onto their second place position.

Buck Davidson and My Boy Bobby performed a brilliant show jumping round on Sunday afternoon to hang onto their third place standings, and capture the title of Rolex/USEF National CCI**** Championship.

In his inaugural four-star outing, the Irish Sport Horse gelding, owned by Carl and Cassandra Segal, didn’t touch a single rail and looked fresh and full of running after his run around yesterday’s course.

Davidson also jumped a double-clear round with his other gelding Ballynoecastle RM, also owned by the Segal family. He was the only rider to compete on Sunday to produce two double-clear rounds on his horses.

“I was seriously lucky to have both these horses this weekend—they both tried their heart out yesterday and today. They jumped easily and beautifully, and I just couldn’t be more thankful to have these horses.”

“I just want to say what an unbelievable feat it is for what Lucinda’s done with her mare to win those three bit four-star competitions,” he continued. “These guys have done a great job, they’ve been super supportive of me. You go to Europe and these two are always the friendly faces that come up and welcome you. I’m glad that they have had such a good time in Kentucky and maybe next year, they’ll let me have a turn!”

After a bit of drama on course Saturday when a dog lunged on course, biting Ballynoecastle RM on the hock, and throwing him off his concentration which resulted in a refusal a few strides later, Davidson must have been relieved to have the refusal and time penalties later revoked by the organizing committee.

During Sunday’s show jumping, Davidson seemed to have been a bit behind the clock in getting through the starting flags on ‘Reggie,’ and admitted, “Yeah, I definitely had to speed up a bit. I just wanted to make sure that I gave myself enough time to tour the arena and let him see everything and relax a bit. It seemed to work out, so I was a bit lucky.” After their lovely round over Sunday’s course, they finished in 15^th place.

At the beginning of the week in the rider’s briefing, the competitors were given tiny, plastic “fortune” ponies—both Davidson and Fredericks still had their ‘good luck’ ponies in their pocket during Sunday’s press conference.

“My fortune said ‘Winning is a result of generations at work’…I thought, well, that might work!” laughed Davidson, who has certainly had generations of successful eventers at work in his family. “When I saw that, well, I’m not one to read fortune cookies or anything like that…but this had to stay in my pocket all weekend.”

The top nine horses show jumped clear, which made for 18 clear rounds. Overall the course rode very well, and the riders were thrilled with the footing in the new arena.

“It was up to height and it was a very visual course, with different looking jumps like the white rails, and the number three [a plank fence]. That was quite a lucky fence because a lot of people did rub that. It was a technical enough course and Richard did a great job building a course for us all to think about,” said Lucinda. “I think the ground has really made a difference and the horses love jumping off that ground. That’s a great feeling for the riders.”

“I think Lucinda’s dead accurate that the ground was fantastic,” Davidson agreed. “Certainly when I walked the course, it looked a little bit easier than it has in years past, and I wasn’t sure if it was actually easier or if I was just on better jumpers than I have been in the past!”

In her inaugural four-star outing, Madeline Blackman, 19, picked up the J.D. Reeves Perpetual Trophy for top-placed Young Rider in the competition and posted the first double-clear show jumping round of the day aboard Gordonstown.

Opposition Buzz and Nicola Wilson of Great Britain received the Best Conditioned Award after three days of competition.

Arthur and Allison Springer, who finished 14^th in the competition, received the Zeppa International Trophy for making the best presentation in the first and second horse inspections.

Of the 47 horses who ran cross-country on Saturday, only 37 were presented on Sunday's jog. The early morning jog started off a bit worrisome for several of the riders during the second horse inspection, as Nicolas Touzaint's Hildago de L'ile, Jan Byyny's Syd Kent, and Ralph Holstein's Arctic Dancer were all held for further reinspection. Upon second presentation, the first two horses passed, while unfortunately Holstein's mount was spun. Competing in his first four-star, Holstein and the Thoroughbred gelding had a fantastic trip around the course on Saturday, jumping clean and inside the time.

Missy Ransehousen withdrew Critical Decision due to an allergic reaction, and after taking him to the Hagyard Equine Medical Institute, he was later deemed fine.

Young Rider Bonner Carpenter did not present Acapulco Jazz, and is said to be retiring the talented Quarter Horse gelding after jumping cleanly around Saturday's course.

To see complete results, visit the Rolex Kentucky website at www.rk3de.org.