Devon, Pa.—May 29

When rider Colin Syquia and owner Cynthia Sulzberger planned Front Page’s 2025 season, things looked a little different than in previous years. Since they first got the gelding at age 3, Syquia’s been Front Page’s main rider. But this year, it was Sulzberger’s turn to take the reins in the show ring in the amateur-owner division.

With that in mind, Syquia and Sulzberger chose two main goals for Syquia to target with “Oslo”: the Platinum Performance/USHJA International Hunter Derby Championship (Kentucky) in August and the $50,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby at the Devon Horse Show. Though they had less show ring miles than in previous years, Syquia had faith in the partnership he’s built with the horse over the past eight years.

“Through the years of working with him, first of all, we’ve gained a great partnership and relationship,” said Syquia. “But I think again through trial and error, I’ve learned to [try to] build to this moment and not focus on every single class but remember there’s a big picture goal, and that was to be here and to be ready.”

The strategy paid off as the pair topped this year’s hunter derby at Devon with a score of 381.

They competed at the Tryon International Equestrian Center (North Carolina) two weeks ago, and Syquia used that to get the 11-year-old Belgian Warmblood (Vigo D’Arsouilles—Cartagena Indias Ecaussinnes) gelding back over some bigger jumps, and he focused on getting the gelding loose in his body and stronger. It was a strategy he brought to the high performance division at Devon too.

“The first two days showing, I just continued to challenge and get better but not overdo, so that in the end, he’s fresh, he’s happy, and he felt great today,” he said. “So it worked out this time.”

But heading into the handy round today, the pair had some ground to make up, as they sat tied for seventh following their classic trip. With 12 points separating them and classic-round leaders David Wilbur and Four Aces, Syquia and Oslo needed to be brilliant.

And brilliant they were.

Watch their handy round, courtesy of USEF Network:

They scored a round high of 201 in the handy to boost them to the top of the class above Hunt Tosh and his famed derby horse Cannon Creek. While Oslo and Syquia have had top placing in Devon’s derby, including second (2023) and third (2022), this was the pair’s first win in the class.

“I caught a really good gallop to the last one, and it came right out of stride,” said Syquia. “The horse is really handy, so I’m lucky to ride him.”

Tosh sat third after the classic round with “Cannon,” and their handy round was good enough to move them up into second.

“It was a great course today, I thought, both rounds,” said Tosh. “You watched Colin kind of moved up. There was one risky inside turn that Michael [Britt-Leon], I think, was the only brave one to attempt. We kind of looked at it when we walked the course; it was after the trot jump, turned back to the oxer, but I thought it was a little bit too much risk for reward, so I went around. But I thought the horses all jumped great.”

Rounding out the top three was Britt-Leon on Prime Time. The stallion owned by amateur Mark Dorfman was purchased last fall. Because it was their first derby together, Britt-Leon elected not to take the tighter turn to the second-to-last fence that he did with his other horse True Cassini.

“It’s a new horse for me, so I was excited that he followed me and did everything that I asked,” he said. “And it’s an exciting ring to ride in I mean, the Dixon Oval’s just famous, and there have been so many great horsemen and great horses in there before. You feel it when you go in the ring. It makes you really want to perform and do great.”

The Chronicle has a pair of reporters at Devon bringing you photos, stories from the competition and more at coth.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to make sure you don’t miss a thing. You can see a full report from the entire competition in the June 20 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse magazine.

Important Links: Devon Horse Show website / Detailed schedule / Results and orders of go / All the Chronicle’s coverage