It was no surprise to anyone to see Charlotte Dujardin win the four-year-old young dressage horse with Mon Amour at the Lemieux National Dressage Championships.
The Martinez gelding was bought in partnership with Peter Belshaw, who owns and bred the unbeaten Times Kismet, who won both the novice and elementary gold at the winter championships with Charlotte in the saddle.
The hugely exciting Mon Amour was also the crowd’s winner, while Michael Eilberg finished second with Franklin Hit, and prelim silver champion Anna Burns added another prize to her week at the National Dressage Championships securing third with Magic Dream. Melissa Chapman, another regular in the young horse classes, took fourth with Majesteit TCE.
The Belshaw family have had huge success with their racehorses, including the likes of Timeless Times, who won 16 races for them as a two-year-old. They have also bred and sold horses through the sales that have gone to the top of the tree (or their progeny have), including the likes of Breeders Cup Turf Juvenile winner Newspaperofrecord, Irish Derby winner Latrobe and his full sister Pink Dogwood, who was placed in the Oaks at Epsom.
“We flew over to Germany to look at a horse and came back with this horse as well,” said Peter. “It’s lovely to have these youngsters, whether they are bought or homebred – the fun is being part of the journey introducing them to the sport and taking them up through the grades.”
National six-year-old young dressage horse
Sadie Smith was certainly brought down to earth to with a bump after winning the six-year-old young dressage horse final with Swanmore Dantino at the National Dressage Championships.
The gorgeous Dante Weltino daughter had not put a foot wrong throughout the final until being pulled forward into the top position. Being faced with a rosette on her bridle turned out to be the straw that broke the camel’s back as she whipped round, unceremoniously dumped Sadie on the ground and headed off to the other end of the arena.
It didn’t stop there, as once Sadie was back in the saddle for a second go, her left rein broke and Sadie was left in a fairly precarious position, but luckily the mare was sensible enough and Sadie managed to dismount and get control.
National five-year-old young dressage horse
The five-year-old winner Tiger, ridden by Beth Bainbridge, is owned and bred by Anna Ross. By Blue Horse First Choice, she is out of the Sandro Hit mare Smash Hit, who is also the dam of four-star eventer Starbucks who helped Brazil win team silver at the Pan American Games under Marcelo Tosi .
A delighted Anna, who rode Tiger’s dam in to third place in a young horse class at the Nationals, said: “I’m so thrilled with her. I was there when she was 10 minutes old and she’s always known she was a star!”
The five-year-old Tiger is not long back from Verden where she represented Ireland at the World Breeding Championships for Ireland with Alex in the saddle finishing fourth in the five-year-old small final with 83.6%.
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