MSJ Top Secret Sold to Swedish Rider Based at Aubenhausen

Dressage

Great Britain

Emma Blundell of Mount St. John has sold LSJ Top Secret to Swedish amateur dressage rider Sofia Ek, who is based with Benjamin and Jessica Werndl at Aubenhausen in Germany.

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

British Bred

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.

Leah Beckett rode her in the summer of 2018, followed by Sam Duckworth who rode her at national small tour level through the summer of 2019. In the autumn of 2019 Amy Woodhead showed 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.

Spanish Olympic Hopeful

In the winter of 2023-2024 a plan was made between Blundell and Spanish dressage rider and horse dealer Santiago Damil to try qualify Top Secret for the Spanish Olympic Team.

The plan was ambitious as Damil had never competed at Grand Prix level before. The pair rode its first national level GP test at the CDN Haftenkamp on 18 - 19 May, scoring 69.209% in the Inter II and 68.440% in the Grand Prix. They travelled to the first Spanish Olympic team selection trial at the 2024 Spanish Dressage Championships in Barcelona on 29 May - 1 June 2024. They were 20th in the Grand Prix (67.957%) and 19th in the Special (67.298%). The Olympic dream was already over. The pair never competed internationally

Sofia Ek

Shortly afterwards MSJ Top Secret sold to Swedish Sofia Ek, wife to Spotify owner Daniel Ek.

"When Emma entrusted Top Secret to us it was clear since the beginning, that our job with her is not only bringing her back to Grand Prix level but also to sell her," Santi Damil told Eurodressage. "For us she became a really special horse in the stable and we knew that she had few stable changes behind her so our main goal was to find a 5* forever home for her. We are really happy that she has found this in her new owner Sofia Ek who is with her horses in one of the best stables in the world, Aubenhausen. We really appreciate the confidence of Benni and Jessy and Sofia in us and we wish them a lot of joy with Rosie."

Ek is the owner of the well known Grand Prix horse Quarton (Anna Kasprzak, Charlotte Jorst) and Belantis (Isabell Werth, Alexander Helgstrand). In May 2024 Danish newspaper Nordjyske revealed that Ek is suing Helgstrand for selling Quarton with a hidden defect.

Damil has two more Mount St. John horses in training: the 10-year old KWPN mare MSJ Jazz Dance (aka Jilzz) who was with Jeanine Nieuwenhuis before, and the 3-year old licensed stallion MSJ Tokyo Style (by Totilas out of Freestyle).