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Jan 17, 2021
YEH Graduate M Crème De La Crème SE Clinches 2020 SmartPak USEA Stallion of the Year
The Windfall Trophy has been presented each year since 2015 to the stallion who accumulates the most points on the USEA leaderboard in that year. Halimey Go (Askar AA x Hamamelis Go), Christine Turner’s Trakehner stallion, was the first to win the title in 2015 and took it for a second year in 2016 with Buck Davidson in the irons. In 2017 and 2018, the Stallion of the Year title went to Sandro’s Star (Sagnol x Poetic Patter), Hannah Salazar’s Oldenburg stallion ridden by Chris Talley. Cassio’s Picasso (Hirtentanz x Cassia-Pao), a Trakenher stallion owned by The Picasso Syndicate and ridden by James Alliston, took home Stallion of the Year honors in 2019.
This year, the SmartPak Stallion of the Year title was awarded to Rose Sullivan’s M Crème De La Crème SE (Clair de Lune SE x Zathalida SE), an 8-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding. M Crème De La Crème SE was bred by Sullivan at her SE Farm and has been campaigned by Alexis Helffrich since his introduction to the sport of eventing in 2016.
“Crème,” as Sullivan calls him, started out in the USEA young horse classes and was a participant in the USEA Young Event Horse West Coast Championships as a 5-year-old. Crème was following in the footsteps of his sire, SE Farm’s flagship sire Clair de Lune SE, who won the 2009 Young Event Horse West Coast Championships and in 2020 was the USEF #3 Eventing Sire.
“As a young horse, Crème has continued to win almost every event he has competed in with partner Alexis Helffrich in the irons,” Sullivan said. “In the last year he competed in the CCI3*-S and he was very competitive and in the top-three at most events.”
In 2020, Crème completed four events, two CCI3*-S and two Intermediates, earning two third places and two fifth places, earning a total of 16 points. In the whole of his eventing career, he has finished outside the top eight just twice.
With Crème turning 9 this year, Sullivan and Helffrich are looking to the future, which looks very bright for this young stallion. “Alexis and I are both excited for 2021 and hope to continue up the eventing ladder and hopefully qualify Crème for [the Kentucky Three-Day Event] in the next couple of years.”
“It is an honor to receive this award for him as a breeder of top event horses,” Sullivan concluded, “and because it highlights Clair de Lune SE as a top producer of event horses.”
M Crème De La Crème SE was honored along with all the other USEA year-end award winners in the USEA Year-End Award Ceremony on Friday, January 8. You can view the awards ceremony on demand here. To view the 2020 SmartPak USEA Stallion of the Year leaderboard, click here.
The USEA would like to thank SmartPak for sponsoring the USEA Stallion of the Year leaderboard.
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