{"id":478003,"date":"2025-10-06T11:29:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T11:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/478003\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T11:29:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T11:29:22","slug":"a-life-after-racing-if-you-build-it-they-will-come-spotlight-on-rich-new-ex-racehorse-event-topics-a-life-after-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/478003\/","title":{"rendered":"A life after racing: \u2018If you build it, they will come\u2019 \u2013 spotlight on rich new ex-racehorse event | Topics: A Life After Racing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/Lucrative partnership: New Zealand Olympian Clarke Johnstone and Sparky Lad, who won the Racehorse to Eventer Challenge Cup at the Cornbury Horse Trials. Photo: Peter Nixon<\/p>\n

The inaugural Racehorse to Eventer Challenge Cup at Cornbury Horse Trials carried a lucrative prize \u2013 as Steve Dennis reports<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As may have been suggested before, if you build it, they will come. The corollary to that might be \u2018if you provide a very generous prize fund, they will come\u2019 \u2013 and the veracity of the latter assertion was proved at the inaugural \u00a350,000 Arena Racing Company (ARC) Racehorse to Eventer Challenge Cup at Cornbury House Horse Trials in mid-September.<\/p>\n

\"ThatThe three-day event, staged at the Oxfordshire base of insurance magnate David Howden, was designed to encourage professional riders to start eventing ex-racehorses and to highlight the almost endless potential of ex-racers embarking on the next phase of their lives.<\/p>\n

A headline-grabbing financial incentive was just the ticket on both fronts, and the hint was taken wholeheartedly with 44 former racehorses competing in the event.<\/p>\n

Few of the entrants had gained any sort of recognition on the racecourse \u2013 several did not race at all \u2013 which underlines the importance of such schemes for horses who otherwise might face an uncertain future.<\/p>\n

It is a global issue, and the organisers\u2019 vision was rewarded with an international winner in Sparky Lad, who won four races in \"\"his native Australia and has adapted to his new profession with a rare elan.<\/p>\n

Sparky Lad\u2019s gate-to-wire triumph \u2013 he led after the dressage element, maintained his lead through the cross-country phase, and went clear in the show-jumping \u2013 was rewarded with a prize of \u00a345,000, an unheard-of sum for this level of eventing, plus a George III silver trophy and, more interestingly as far as the 11-year-old was concerned, his own weight in horse feed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the biggest prize I\u2019ve ever won,\u201d said Sparky Lad\u2019s rider-trainer Clarke Johnstone, who represented New Zealand at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, finishing sixth in the individual rankings.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s such a nice horse and I thought we had a good chance going into the event, he\u2019s been very competitive at 4* level, but to actually pull it off is quite another thing.<\/p>\n

\"Ex-Aussie\u201cThere was a fair bit of pressure going into the final element and the wet weather meant soft ground and that doesn\u2019t really suit him, but we went clear and it was brilliant to win it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DualThe Racehorse to Eventer Challenge Cup was the brainwave of Jayne McGivern, owner of Dash Grange Stud, the home of 2015 Derby and Prix de l\u2019Arc de Triomphe winner Golden Horn. It was bankrolled by the Arena Racing Company, which owns and operates 16 racecourses in Britain.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid Howden, Jayne McGivern and the team at Cornbury House Horse Trials should be congratulated for their excellent work in establishing this new class, which we were delighted to support,\u201d says ARC chief executive Martin Cruddace.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis initiative promotes the achievements of those competing in the Racehorse to Eventer Challenge Cup alongside the more general opportunities in eventing available to Thoroughbred racehorses as a second career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JesseThe hugely experienced Johnstone, who is based in Cirencester, near Cheltenham, took on Sparky Lad in February 2022 \u2013 the gelding is owned by Sydney-based Tim Boland, whose prize was a silver-plated horseshoe worn by Golden Horn \u2013 and the Antipodean pair worked well together from the outset.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a lovely horse with a very cool temperament, he\u2019s the same every day,\u201d says Johnstone. \u201cHe enjoys his job and always tries his best.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe finds things pretty easy in all phases, he\u2019s an intelligent horse and was quick to learn. He might not be the flashiest of movers but is a good jumper and loves to use his pace in the cross-country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve found Thoroughbreds to be very versatile in their second career, they want to work with you, whatever they\u2019re doing. Hopefully Sparky Lad can continue his good form, he\u2019s almost at the top level now, and we\u2019ll be aiming at the world championships.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever his fate in the eventing crown, Sparky Lad can already claim an association with a world champion. He and Winx, one of the greatest horses in Australian history, were stablemates in the yard of leading trainer Chris Waller and actually raced on the same day at Randwick, April 14, 2018.<\/p>\n

\"ByThey were on very different journeys. Winx was an easy winner of the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes, stretching her extraordinary winning streak to 25 (it would eventually reach 33). Sparky Lad finished eighth in a handicap; he had won three races in minor company up to that point and would win once more before retirement, slipping unnoticeably out of the sport.<\/p>\n

Not all journeys are direct, though. Some go around the houses, a mystery tour, destination unknown but definitely out there somewhere. It took Sparky Lad nearly seven years to find his true place in the world, a born winner like his former stablemate \u2013 but just not on the racetrack. It\u2019s a career arc that is mirrored by many former racehorses and could be emulated by very many more, a project close to Howden\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis brilliant concept from Jayne McGivern now has committed longevity for the next five years,\u201d he says. \u201cIt is exactly where we want to be going in order to promote the versatility of Thoroughbreds and their second careers after racing, which sits alongside my own Thoroughbred Aftercare Programme.\u201d<\/p>\n

All publicity in this regard is good publicity; the medium is the message, the Cornbury House contest a shining example of the possibilities open to former racehorses moving on to a productive and enjoyable life in the wider equestrian world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis kind of event is great to get people thinking about the concept,\u201d says Johnstone. \u201cHopefully it will drive greater participation \u2013 I hope this class encourages top riders to ask their local racehorse trainer whether they have a horse that might suit eventing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Visit the Cornbury House Horse Trials website<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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British racecourses unite to increase aftercare funding through Retraining of Racehorses<\/a><\/p>\n

View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses \/<\/a>\u00a0jockeys \/<\/a>\u00a0trainers \/<\/a>\u00a0sires<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lucrative partnership: New Zealand Olympian Clarke Johnstone and Sparky Lad, who won the Racehorse to Eventer Challenge Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-478003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115326994091960108","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}