Teenager Ellie Fredericks has won the Sulby Hall Stud NEXGEN Four-Year-Old Eventing Final riding her mother, multiple five-star winner Lucinda Fredericks’s Upsi Britannia.
Ellie beat a competitive top five filled to the brim with Irish talent, and though there’s still some essential education to come on the flat for her exciting young horse, the judging panel of German team stalwart Frank Ostholt, British CCI5* winner Oliver Townend, and experienced ground jury member Judy Hancock were compelled to reward generously the horse’s expressive gallop and committed, gutsy cross-country technique.
“He’s very, very cool, and he loves his jumping,” says 18-year-old Ellie, who took the tiny gelding on after he was broken in and has enjoyed a fruitful year with him so far.
“He might not be the flashiest on the flat, but he definitely brings it back for the cross-country – and he’s got an incredible gallop. You look at him and he’s not particularly big, but then he gallops and you’re like, ‘there’s something there!’”
Ellie, who competes at Advanced and CCI3*-L level, also competes the family’s duo of talented stallions – but she wasn’t particularly involved in breeding Upsi Britannia, the credit for which she gives entirely to her mother.
“I love the breeding, but my mother obviously knows a lot more – so I probably didn’t get a massive say in him,” she laughs. “I’d have been quite young when he was bred – just fourteen or fifteen – so all I really knew was that one day, there was a really cute foal in the field.”
Upsi Britannia boasts a pedigree for eventing that’s as impressive as his rider’s: he’s by the Selle Français stallion Upsilon, who competed at senior championship level with France’s Tom Carlile, and is out of a daughter of Lucinda’s Badminton, Burghley, and Kentucky CCI5* winner Headley Britannia. The precocious talent that that lends him also expresses itself as a big, expressive personality.
“He’s definitely got a cheeky side, but he loves his jumping, and the dressage will come with time,” says Ellie.
Ellie, who also has a ride in today’s five-year-old final, values the NEXGEN series as a crucial part of her young horses’ continued education.
“It’s brilliant. We took him and our five-year-old finalist to Barbury, and that’s quite a big atmosphere, which sets them up so well,” she says. “After that, he went double clear at his first BE80, and then did the same around his first BE90. It was so helpful that he’d had the chance to see so much – there are NEXGEN classes in so many different places, so you can really take them wherever you want and show them a lot.”
The lessened emphasis on penalising mistakes also creates a productive learning environment, she explains.
“If you have something that’s a little bit spookier and it’s not going to jump a fence, you’re allowed to go around it – so no matter what happens, your horse gets a great education. It’s a brilliant concept.”
RESULTS:
Ellie Fredericks – Upsi Britannia
Catherine Robinson – One to One
Austin O’Connor – Master Cornet
Aoife Clark – Incognito de Crazy
Susie Berry – Lackroe Quality
