MSJ Top Secret Signed as Spanish Olympic Team Hopeful

Dressage

Spain

MSJ Top Secret, Emma Blundell's home bred and internationally competed Grand Prix horse, has been signed into Spanish ownership to enable a potential run for Olympic team selection.

MSJ Top Secret is a 13-year old Hanoverian mare by Totilas out of Blundell's foundation mare FBW Deja Vu (by Dacaprio).

Silver Medalist at British Young Horse Championships

The dark bay mare was first trained and competed in 2015 by Charlotte Dujardin, who collaborated extensively with Mount St. John between 2015 and 2021. The pair won silver at the 2015 British Young Horse Championships in the 4-year old division.

In 2016 MSJ's in-house rider Lucinda Elliott took over the ride and also finished in silver medal position at the 2016 British Young Horse Championships in the 5-year old class. In 2017 it was Australian Jayden Brown's turn and he placed fifth at the British Young Horse Championships when the mare was six. He produced and competed her through Advanced Medium level until the spring of 2018.

From Young Horse to Grand Prix

MSJ Top Secret was moved up to FEI level by a string of riders.

Leah Beckett rode her in the summer of 2018, followed by Sam Duckworth who rode her at small tour level through the summer of 2019.

In the autumn of 2019 Amy Woodhead took over and established her further at small tour level. She rode the mare in her first international competition, the 2020 CDI Keysoe, where they were second in the PSG (72.177%), 9th in the Inter I (67.500%), and 13th in the Inter I Kur (68.475%).

In 2022 the ride was transferred to 2021 British Under 25 team rider Alexander Harrison-West who showed Top Secret first at small tour level. They competed at the 2022 British Small Tour Championships, landing in the middle of the pack. Their first Intermediaire II was a year ago in January 2023, followed by their first Grand Prix test in April, scoring 73.70%. They debuted at international senior Grand Prix level at the CDI Wellington-Heckfield in June, but had a rocky start with 59.304%. It was the horse's last competition in her career so far.

Declared for Spain

The FEI database shows that MSJ Top Secret has now been declared for Spain, registered as co-owned by Spanish dressage rider and horse dealer Santiago Damil.

"Top Secret arrived last week and is a horse that fits Santi well," said Damil's partner Franziska Erley. "They are not long together and are getting to know each other, but it looks promising. She’s a mare with a lot of talent for the Grand Prix."

The 26-year old "Santi" Damil competed in his first and so far only international show at the 2023 World Championships for young dressage horses aboard the 7-year old L'Amore per Sempre OLD, finishing 8th in the Finals.

The German based Damil came from Spain to Germany as a working student for Borja Carrascosa before setting up his own independent business with Erley in Fürstenau. The highest level he's competed at so far is Prix St Georges. In 2021 he made a big impression with Dante's Herzchen in the Developing PSG Horse class. Soon after she sold to Australian Olympian Lyndal Oatley.

"Of course a fight for a place on the team is the big goal, but we will work without that pressure and whenever she’s ready we will start some shows and then we will see where we really are," Erley concluded.