Gemma Tattersall and Arctic Soul at the first inspection at 2015 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials
For the first time this year at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials there will be a prize for the highest placed former racehorse
British Racing’s official charity for the welfare of former racehorses, Retraining of Racehorses (RoR), is putting up a cash prize of £1000 to the connections of the former racehorse that performs best at the CCI4* event
The recognition of the off the track thoroughbred in the sport eventing has become a popular move with racing bodies around the world adding such prizes to major eventing competitions such as the RoR Championship at Barbury and the Off the Track programme in Australia
At the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials in 2016 the RoR £1000 cash prize will be open to any horse that has raced under the rules of a recognised racing authority. Had it been on offer in 2015, it would have been won by Arctic Soul, ridden by Gemma Tattersall, who finished 16th overall and Gemma is hoping to repeat the feat at Badminton this year.
Now a thirteen-year-old gelding and top-class event horse, Arctic Soul began his career running in four races in Ireland in 2008 before being retrained.
“Despite the continual development of the sport, the Thoroughbred is still at the heart of Eventing and this is a fantastic initiative to encourage and reward the retraining of racehorses. There could not be a greater showcase for the sport than Badminton and I am looking forward to having a crack at winning this award with my amazing former racehorse, Arctic Soul” says Gemma
The RoR Championship winner at Barbury in 2015 was Mark Todd’s NZB Ocean where Sir Mark spoke very fondly of the special breed
"I love thoroughbreds, they have brilliant minds to work with. I used to train racehorses in New Zealand and now we've just won a big Retraining of Racehorses class here at Barbury proving their versatility.”
So which entries will be vying for the prize? We’re pretty sure that Chris Burton’s Haruzac is an ex-racehorse but on the current Entry List for Badminton, there is no notification of which horses will be competing for the new prize – do you know which ones are eligible?
