British Breeder Magazine November 2019

BRITISH BREEDING FUTURITY
RICHMOND
29th - 30th July
Richmond Equestrian Centre was the venue for the Baileys
Horse Feeds/ British Breeding Futurity evaluations held over
two days on the 29th and 30th July.
Day one saw the introduction of the new three to five-yearold
day format, where participants were assessed on a course
of jumps, a dressage test and in hand without a saddle. These
bring a different dynamic to the Futurity evaluations with
the opportunity for horses and ponies in this age group to
qualify for the recently relaunched Equine Bridge, providing a
pathway into their chosen equestrian sport.
The highest score on day one went to Mel Gravell-Barnes’
four-year-old showjumping gelding, Kosutta’s Korolevski Tsar,
by the stallion, Rasputin, out of an Undercover mare, who
took home a gold score of 8.51 and duly qualified for the
Equine Bridge in October. “I only have two stallions and two
breeding mares, and I have had two foals from this mare and
both have had extremely trainable brains and attitudes and
are very inquisitive”, explained Mel. “Kosutta’s Korolevski
Tsar is currently doing a lot of flatwork training under the
guidance of our grand prix dressage trainer and he will
hopefully be attending the Equine Bridge in October. After
that he will be for sale. Richmond was a fabulous venue for
the British Breeding futurity - I would definitely go back.”
Five year old gelding, GFE Cordexus (Cevin Z x Desideratum)
took home the highest eventing score with 8.3 achieving
a gold premium. Owned and shown on the day by Caitlin
Pitcher of Golden Flatts Eventing, this gelding also qualified
for the Equine Bridge. Owner, Caroline Pitcher, said “This is
the first horse we have ever bred. He is from a thoroughbred
mare that was given to us by family friends for my daughter
to start her eventing career. Unfortunately, she got an injury
in the field so we decided to breed a horse for my daughter
that we could not afford to go out and buy- hence using
‘Cevin Z’ as the sire. People told me I was mad to breed from
a thoroughbred, but we knew we wanted the ‘Cevin Z’ jump
and movement but with the blood and stamina of a
high-quality thoroughbred. My daughter, Caitlin, will produce
him, and the dream is one day to get to Badminton. He is
quirky and opinionated, but he is so talented that we forgive
him! We found the Futurity feedback immensely helpful
and it was very comforting to hear praise for our bloodline
choices as we already have his full brother who is a yearling!”
The top dressage entry in this age group at Richmond was
Phillip Jones’ three-year-old gelding, Forgiveness, by the
Hanoverian dressage stallion, Finest, out of a Dormello mare,
with a score of 8 which gained him a gold premium.
Day two at Richmond saw the foals to two-year olds come
forward for their evaluations. A larger number of entries and
a notable amount of ‘golds’ came from the day.
Just one Elite score was awarded and this went to Sally
Banks L’Amie’s impressive three-month-old colt, Merikanto,
(Morricone I x Showmaker) who achieved a score of 9.1 for
dressage, the highest scoring dressage foal of the first week.
Sally said: “We bought the mare before she was born,
We were buying ‘the foal’ for the bloodline and we were
convinced we were getting a colt.
Merikanto - Photo Horse Power Creative
We were gutted at the time! My daughter competed her for
many years but after a serious injury, we decided to put her
in foal as we couldn’t bear the thought of selling her. She
is one of the sweetest natured horses we have ever owned.
Eric is our very first foal and we are over the moon to have
produced an Elite foal and delighted with the mare. We have
fallen in love with the breeding process, so we have recently
bought another three mares to start a dressage breeding
programme under the name of SLS stud.”
The highest scoring showjumper of the day was Mandy Riley’s
8-month-old colt foal, Clintekko, (Clintendro K x Lupicor),
achieving a gold score of 8.7. ‘Clintekko’s grandsire was the
well-known Clinton who had notable successes with a win in
the 2003 grand prix in Lummen, a second place in the Nations
Cup in Aachen the same year and third place in the individual
rankings at the 2004 Olympics, in Athens.
Mandy explained “I have been breeding for about fifteen
years on a small scale for myself and my daughter. This foal
was from a very special mare who is extremely sharp and
careful but just a bit too much for my daughter at this time
so we decided to put her in foal and see if it might take the
edge off her a bit! My daughter is trained by Jamie Gornall
where the stallion is based so we saw him a lot and chose to
use him. I would love to keep the colt entire but we are not
really set up for keeping stallions at home so unless we geld
him he will be up for sale.”
The eventing category saw Linda Reeds’ Snowdon Carr Sundae
(Future Gravitas X Dolmen Déjà vu), a seven-week-old colt
foal earning an impressive score of 8.475 for a gold premium.
This colt’s sire, Future Gravitas, has also been selected by
Olympic event rider Mary King to breed from her Rolex CCI
four star winning mare Kings Temptress.
Owner Linda Reeds explained, “Snowdon Carr Sundae is our
first ever homebred colt. My daughter managed to get to
Badminton grassroots in 2017, and we wanted her to have
another eventer coming through as we knew we could not go
out and buy what we wanted. The jury is out as to whether
he stays entire but despite his extremely laid-back attitude
he is massive already and potentially too big for me to
handle. Either way he will be staying with us”, she said.
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