Now here's a great advertisement for
ex-racehorses ! Summon Up Theblood, a triple winner on the Flat for
trainer Mick Channon in 2008, is now competing as an Olympian
three-day-eventer at Rio de Janeiro. How's that for rehabilitation of
racehorses?
Rather surprisingly, this good-looking
bay by Red Ransom was not a long-distance Nantional Hunt horse (the
type that often does so well when retrained for a sport like
eventing), but a flat miler, winning at Windsor, Ayr and Thirsk.
Clearly, some time after that someone taught him to jump! It just
goes to show that 'even ' Flat ex-racehorses can learn to jump –
and be somewhat better than average. (In fact, they can progress
better in this respect than some highly experienced National Hunt
horses. A retraining Flat racer will be learning jumping from
scratch, and will only know to do what you teach him. But an old
hurdler or chaser will have developed his own way of doing things,
to meet obstacles at speed – along with, perhaps, some related
physical stresses and injuries – which may not be suitable to the
new sporting discipline, and will need to be un-learnt . Not always
easy!
Summon Up Theblood, now 11 years old
and owned by Louisa Benger, started his eventing career via
Rehabilitation of Racehorses (ROR) classes. He obviously showed
promise, and Brazilian event rider Carlos Parro – his Olympic Games
partner in Rio - started riding SUT in open competitions in 2011.
They qualified for the Brazilian
Olympic team at Barbary International Horse Trials in July, where
they put in a tremendous last run to confirm their place on the
squad.
Understandably thrilled at their
Olympic prospects, Parro says: “It is very exciting for me to be
representing Brazil at a home Games and it's also an achievement for
a former racehorse to be competing at this level, showing how
versatile and talented they can be in other disciplines.”
Of course, many ex-racehorses retrain
very successfully for eventing, where their speed, stamina, agility
and endurance serve them so well. We all remember Bindaree, the Grand
National winner who went on to score at eventing too, as well as
horses like Squadron Leader, Five Boys, and the wonderfully-named
Cecily Parsley. But I don't personally know of any ex-racers who went
on to compete in the Olympics. Are there any? Or is Summon Up
Theblood starting a happy trend...
