Ex-Racers OK! - At Last!

It’s amazing, and heartening, to see how popular ex-racehorses have become over the past five years. A decade ago nobody ( or hardly anyone!) wanted a retired racehorse. Too many ‘issues’, people thought. Ex-racers were crocked in the body and crazed in the head.

Also, and pretty crucially, the competitive showing and jumping community felt there was no place in their disciplines for Thoroughbreds, and especially not ex-racing ones. The favoured breeds for jumpers were hulking Hanoverians and Warmbloods.

Tb’s are speedy and nippy, but their natural athleticism was downplayed by many, who said they did not have the ‘power’ for the big courses. (Have any of those detractors actually seen  the Grand National fences?)

In showing, there were just no suitable classes for TB’s. A smaller, very pretty one could sometimes do fairly well in hack classes, if it moved elegantly too. But hack classes are few and far between, especially at local level.  And so are ex-racers with a beautiful ‘daisy-cutting’ action! TB’s have evolved to cover ground at speed – not dance daintily though the park with an elegant lady aboard.

A big brawny ex-chaser type might just about have scraped a place in a local hunter class – if there were no half-decent ‘proper’ hunters in it.  But many judges were very sniffy about it.

Finding any event ex-racehorses could excel in was difficult, however well re-trained they were. And there was a definite prejudice against them, amongst riders and judges.

Fast-forward a few years, and what a difference!  Thanks to the brilliant work of the Retraining of Racehorses organisation, and the lower-key constant plugging-away by dedicated smaller groups and individuals, retrained racehorses have hit the big time! Racing heroes strutting their stuff in new, life-after-racing careers keep hitting the popular headlines. Kauto Star  is doing dressage, as is Grand National winner Neptune Collanges. Kauto’s old rival Denman is enjoying life teamchasing. And that beautiful  grey steeplechase warrior, Monet’s Garden, having suffered a life-threatening illness, is now delighting the crowds again, this time in showing classes.

Indeed, these days showing retired racehorses – thanks to a whole series of Ex-Racehorse showing classes offered at local and national level,  is a booming sphere, with professional show-producers getting involved.

At the recent Great Yorkshire Show, there were 47 entries in the ROR class. (Pity the poor judges, having to sort through that lot!) What’s more, since ROR changed their rules, these were all genuine ex-racehorses, who had actually raced. No protected un-raced TB’s allowed these days!

(Until recently, the rules allowed ‘racehorses’ to be shown if they had simply ‘been in training’. This meant that ‘show quality’ youngsters could be cherry-picked by sharp-eyed producers, sent to the yard of a licensed trainer for a few weeks, then returned home, unraced and therefore totally unscathed and blemish-free, ready for a prize-scooping showing career.)

Not any more! In that GYS class, the 47 horses had, between them, won a total of £603,551  in racecourse prize money. Three of them had won over £70,000 each.   The biggest prize-earner was Fortunate Isle, a 12-year-old chestnut gelding who had won £80,332 running under both Flat and National Hunt Rules. ( He wasn’t quite as good in this particular arena, sadly, not being placed on this occasion.)  Conversely, the winner of this huge class, the 12-year-old gelding Liverpool, had no racing winnings at all! The third-placed horse, though, a 9-year-old bay gelding called Irish Mayhem, was the second-highest racing earner, having won £70,358 on the Flat running in the Godolphin blue colours of Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum.  For the results record, the horse placed second in the class was Sister Gee, a 12-year-od bay mare who had racing winnings of over £3000.

Number-crunching also showed – in this particular class anyway – that successfully retrained racehorses come from all types of racing, both sexes and all ages. At Harrogate there were 24 entries from Flat racers, 22 from National Hunt, and 11 from the point-to-pointing field. Several horses had tackled all three!  There were 35 geldings and 12 mares (perhaps reflecting that many ex-racing mares go on to breeding careers.)  There were three 5-year-olds in the class, while the oldest contestant was the 20-years-young bay gelding Feel A Line. This grand old lad wasn’t placed on this occasion – but since he had already won almost £21,000 on the racetrack he didn’t owe anyone anything!

It was a pleasure to see them all looking so well, successfully re-trained and happily doing ‘another job’ – and proving the old detractors so wrong!