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Lucinda Fredericks and Headley Britannia win the Rolex Kentucky 3DE
Austalia's only entry at the 2009 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, Lucinda Fredericks and Headley Britannia, have won the first 4-Star event of the season with a clear round in the showjumping. Monday, 27 April 2009 Bettina Hoy (GER) and Bruce Davidson Jr. had clear rounds as well and retained their 2nd and 3rd placing. This is a 'career grand slam' for Lucinda, who has also won Badminton and Burghley. She aske rhetorically: 'What more can this horse do for me?' Lucinda's husband Clayton won the event in 2007, and they are only the second couple to win at Kentucky. Americans David and Karen O'Connor were the other. Full Report..................... Lucinda Fredericks and Headley Britannia have claimed America’s ultimate Eventing prize the Kentucky Rolex Three-Day Event. Adding to their victories at Badminton (2007) and Burghley (2006) and an Olympic Team Silver medal in 2008, Headley Britannia is one of the (if not THE) best performed Eventing mare in history, and what an unlikely hero she is. Standing at 15.3hh the chestnut mare is insignificant looking, has a trot like a sewing machine and ears that are full of a very unattractive fungus. If you saw her in a yard you would walk right past her. Her heart, on the other hand, is something that you can not measure. There is always a magnificent line up of horse flesh at Rolex, yet never more impressive than this year. Bettina Hoy, Nicolas Touzaint, Oliver Townend, and William Fox-Pitt were some of the internationals there to ride around Kentucky ahead of next year’s World Equestrian Games, which will be held at the same horse park. Ex-Aussie turned American hero Phillip Dutton had two of his best horses: Connaught (on whom he was the 2007 Rolex Champion) and Woodburn. The scene was set for a sizzling competition. Bettina Hoy and her 18-year-old Ringwood Cockatoo were favoured to be leading after the Dressage. If there was one Dressage test to watch all weekend it was this one. Everyone expected it to be good but instead it was sensational. The appreciative crowd rose to its feet in a standing ovation as Bettina finished what she says is “the best test he has ever done.” Score 28.8 (84%, 82% and 74% one judge marking significantly harder than the other two). Just a few horses later came Headley Britannia. By conformation she cannot compete with the elegance of Cockatoo but Lucinda gets every once of performance out of the little gun. She powered into the arena. Her trot stride was double its natural length, she had great extensions and executed perfect changes. A cracking test for 32.3 and second place. Bruce Davidson Jnr (aka Buck) puts in a good test for the USA on a nice young horse My Boy Bobby for 39.0 and sat in third place after the Dressage. Bettina let Cockatoo travel at his own pace on the cross-country course. “I went as fast as I felt was good for him and for his age,” she said after her round. Clear with 9.6 time. Lucinda and “Brit” took an option at the sunken road fence to avoid the chance of a run out at the narrow face of the final element. None of the horses under time had taken any options. Then to everyone’s surprise the mare jumped into the “Head of the Lake” with so much speed that she overshot the line to an apex in the water. “No, things didn’t quite go according to plan at the lake,” laughed Fredericks. “Brit’s a funny little thing, she very strong and quite difficult to manage at the start of the course. “I’d always planned to do the long route at the sunken road. I just had a bee in my bonnet about it, and that’s what I was going to do. I was making up time and she sort of opened up quite a bit, and I came around the corner and saw this nice open distance. I had planned to go in six strides [at the lake] and it turned into four. Brit took control.” Lucinda was quick to react but was forced to take the long way in the water to avoid trouble at the big apex. It was quite a bit longer than the direct route. “She’ll be 30 seconds over now,” said David O’Connor watching the CCTV in the finish box. From the water onwards Lucinda put her foot down and didn’t touch the reins again. The mare was in overdrive and was eating up the course. Aussies, Yanks, Poms, Germans, French, Canadians and Argentines crowed around the CCTV in the finish box to watch Lucinda’s round. By the nine minute marker she had made up some time, by the ten minute marker David O’Connor said “She’s almost on time!” and everyone realised that she might just make it. She came in EXACTLY on the optimum time 11.02mins. What a ride! She went into the lead. Bettina was in second and Buck was clear with 1.2 time to remain in third place. Just over 40,000 people watched the XC action. Of the 50 horses to start there were 10 double-clear rounds and 28 clear rounds with time penalties. Three riders withdrew, one retired and seven were eliminated. The Show jumping was not as influential as in previous years and there were 15 double-clear rounds. The top three places did not change and Lucinda and her pocket rocket were crowned 2009 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event Champions - just two years after her husband Clayton won the title on Ben Along Time. “Headley Britannia has been the most wonderful horse. What more could you possibly ask for? She’s come all the way from Wiltshire in England to beat some of the best in the world. I’ve had the best week of my life. See you next year!” said a delighted Lucinda. ‘Brit’ came to Fredericks to be sold, and obviously it was not meant to be—and Fredericks is thankful for that, because she got a horse of a lifetime. “She’s a winner. She tries her guts out. She has the attitude to do well. She’s one in a million. Brit owes me nothing now.” The pair almost didn’t go to Rolex and only made their decision in late March after Clayton encouraged her to go. Lucinda plans to use some of her $US 80,000 winnings to do some embryo transfers with her successful mare. For full results please see www.rk3de.org Or listen to the Eventing Radio Show for end-of–day reports, available as podcast. Sunday, 26 Aprl 2009 Lucinda Fredericks takes the lead after Cross-Country at the Rolex Kentucky 3DE Austalia's only entry at the 2009 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, Lucinda Fredericks and Headley Britannia, came in just in time to take over the lead from Bettina Hoy and Rindwood Cockatoo. It looked at first as though Lucinda was following Bettina's example, who had incurred 9.6 time penalties in an otherwise clear round. Lucinda had taken the long route option at two obstacles including an early water jump but made up time later in the course, finishing on her Dresssage score of 32.3. That gives her a lead of 4.1 penalties over Bettina going into the showjumping test. Lucinda said that the horse really got going on the second half of the course. At the water she planned to do six strides to the drop but Brit took over and she got four instead, then was forced to do the option. 'After that, I never took a pull and she tanked home. I am very proud of her.'
Saturday, 25 April 2009 Lucinda Fredericks second after Dressage at the Rolex Kentucky 3DE Lucinda Fredericks and her diminutive mare Headley Britannia are in second place with 32.3 penalties behind Germany's Bettina Hoy and Ringwood Cockatoo, who scored an amazing 28.8. Lucinda, wife of Clayton Federicks and member of the Silver Medal winning team at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, is the only Australian representative at the event. Former Australian medal team member Phillip Dutton, who now rides for the USA, is in 10th place with his horse Connaught and in 17th with Woodburn. Father-and-son team Bruce Davidson Junior and Senior are in 3rd and 38th position, somewhat reflecting their age difference. To quote Kentucky,.com, 'Yesterday's results were a bit of a family affair. Rolex officials pointed out that Hoy's husband, Andrew Hoy, Fredericks' husband, Clayton Fredericks, and Davidson's father, Bruce Davidson, have all won Rolex before.' ... 'Bettina Hoy called her test the best one Ringwood Cockatoo has ever done at a four-star event. "It feels like an old married couple now," she said. "He seems to be getting better with getting older."'
The Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event is also the first leg of the HSBC FEI Classics™ series. For details of this series, please go to the FEI web. | |||||||||||
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