WELLINGTON, Fla.--Canadian Olympian Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu on Medoc scored 68.588% to win the Prix St. Georges Future Challenge Final on Sunday, March 22 at the Glpbal Dressage Festival.
Brittany Fraser Beaulieu on Medoc (Photo by Centre Line Medial)After five qualifiers throughout the Festival, nine made the cut to compete in the Final.
Lars Peterson on New Rock scored 67.853% to place Reerve Champion, and Hope Cooper was third on 67.353%, rounding out a trio of Dutch Warmbloods on the podium.
The series is open to developing small tour horses aged 7 to 9.
It is designed to offer horses with international quality the opportunity to perform a test under CDI conditions in the main ring but without some of the pressures of an international show.
“We are so fortunate to have a class like this,” said Fraser-Beaulieu, who is the top-ranked Canadian rider at 19th in the world. “It’s amazing to get the young horses out in an environment like this with top judges. It gets them used to the show ring and the atmosphere. Jill Irving purchased Medoc when he was 5, and he just grew. He’s a very big horse, so we took our time with him, but he’s pre-schooling all the grand prix work, it comes naturally for him."
“HIS PIAFFE/PASSAGE is phenomenal,” she said. “So, he’ll probably be an even better grand prix horse, which is exciting. He has a lot of power; I just have to teach him how I can access it while he stays relaxed. But that takes time over the years to develop.”
The Prix St. Georges Future Challenge final likely is the end of Medoc’s small tour career as Fraser-Beaulieu plans to step him up to middle tour when she returns to Canada after the FEI World Cup Final in Texas, where she will ride her Nations Cup team horse, Jaccardo, another belonging to Irving.
“I want to do the Future Challenge [for developing grand prix horses] next year here with Medoc,that’s my goal,” said the 37-year-old. who was the last rider at this facility before the Featival relocates to its brand new home, a facility adjacent to the Winter Equestrian Festival show jumping grounds.
“I didn’t realize that until after I was done, and then I thought ‘Oh my gosh, I’m not going to be riding here anymore,” said Fraser-Beaulieu. “I’ve been coming here for so many years, and I’m definitely going to miss it. There’s nothing like a Friday night riding under the lights here."
“I’m sure the new venue is going to be spectacular, but there are so many memories, I had a lot of firsts here,” she said. “I qualified to go to World Cup Final in this ring. I had a lot of scores to go to Tokyo in this ring. And, I set the Canadian freestyle record here [79.33% achieved on All In at AGDF in 2021, which still stands].”
