Prince Of Hope Lives Up to His Name For Cohen in Future Challenge Prix St. Georges Qualifier
By Alice Collins for Wellington International
Fifteen up-and-coming small tour horses lined out in the Buffalo Wild Wings Future Challenge FEI Prix St. Georges on Sunday, February 23, the closing day of action in week seven of the 2025 Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) in Wellington, FL. The top three all finished within half a percentage point of each other, and the top two horses—who both picked up tickets to the final in AGDF 12—were sired by sons of Totilas.
U.S. athletes filled the top three spots, with Rebecca Cohen piloting Carol Cohen Hodess and Blake Hodess’ nine-year-old Prince Of Hope, by Total Hope, to 70.559% and the blue sash. Ashley Holzer was the other qualifier for the final, producing a 70.059% test on her own Toto Jr. son Liberty L, another nine-year-old gelding. Andrea Woodard was just 0.05 percentage points behind with a 70% test on Enter At A LLC’s eight-year-old Revolution mare, Roxette.
Cohen now has a horse qualified for the final of both the Buffalo Wild Wings Future Challenge and the big tour Lövsta Future Challenge, which had been one of her main goals this year.
“This season I wanted to have my young grand prix horse [Jameson, whom she qualified with a win in week three’s Lövsta Future Challenge] and Prince in the [Buffalo Wild Wings] final, so now I’ve accomplished that and I’m really excited,” she said.
Cohen is a native of Wellington and trains out of her mother Carol’s 3 Graces Dressage, another sponsor of the AGDF series. As well as having a barn full of dressage horses, Rebecca Cohen is also an avid polo player. She has owned Prince Of Hope since he was six.
“It’s been a really fun journey to develop him to a small tour horse, especially considering that when I first got Prince he got injured and had a year off,” she said. “I’m really happy about today. He gets better and better every time I go in there. Even if the scores don’t always show an upward trend, I feel that he’s more with me and knows his job.
“His highlights are always the trot work and the canter pirouettes. The changes I still need to work on; he’s not as strong in them and goes a bit from side to side, but with more strength and time they’ll get better,” she continued. “He’s the funniest horse ever. He’ll never bite or kick though he pulls faces and has an attitude, but he’s sweet.”
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