With all the recent regular anti-racing publicity that is published always at the time when the racing industry is preparing Melbourne Cup week. As the spotlight was shone on the industry by the media accusing a lot of participants of not knowing where their ex-race horses are once they leave our care, we have an update on how two stable favourites are going in their life after racing.
ONLY TIGER (Rip Van Winkle x Sitting On A Hill)
6 Year Gelding
Retired from racing in July of this year, unfortunately an injury to a suspensory ligament ended his racing career. Wearing the famous colours worn by champions such as So You Think, Saintly, Norzita- Only Tiger had 16 starts for 3 wins, 4 seconds and 5 thirds, earning connections over $100k in prize money.
The ownership group of Only Tiger consists of ones who had tasted success at the elite level having won multiple Group 1 races, including some of our biggest races- highlighted by multiple Melbourne Cups. Names such as Dato Tan Chin Nam’s Think Big Stud, Entrepreneur and Breeder Matthew Sandblom, ATC’s Julia Ritchie’s Bangalore Stud Syndicate, Tunku Ahmad Yahaya and Team McDonnell.
Upon retirement from racing, Only Tiger was surrended to Racing NSW’s newly rebranded “Team Thoroughbred”. An initiative first established as the Thoroughbred Rehabilitation Trust (TRT) that operated from the now Quarantine centre at Canterbury Racecourse and run by ex-mounted police office and horseman Scott Brodie. The program accepts retired race horses to be retrained to a level that they can then be sold to suitable homes. Some horses have been lucky enough to go on and become Police Horses (Godolphin- Valinorean) while others are rehomed into equestrian/eventing homes. Now that the program has expanded and undergone a name change (Team Thoroughbred NSW), they have multiple properties where ex racers first go and undertake initial training before being made available for purchase to their next chapter in life.
Only Tiger was only with Team Thoroughbred for 3 months before Kathy Dixon of Sandokan Park at Kemps Creek fell madly in love with him and just had to get him into her retraining program. With over 40 years experience in a vast range of equine sports, Kathy is a passionate horsewoman that trains both equine and humans so that they can enjoy a happy life together in the chosen field.
Since being taken on by Kathy, Only Tiger has done some mandatory classic dressage training and has since progressed to be trained as an Eventing prospect. When speaking about the attitude toward his new life, Kathy states that Only Tiger has a “Powerhouse stride and a Can do attitude” about him. Speaking very highly of the horse, Kathy also feels that Only Tiger has the potential to be a world class champion and has what it takes to compete at the elite level- Olympic Level!
Photo: bradleyphotos.com.au
THE MIST (Raise The Flag x The Cloud)
6 Year Gelding
Also retired earlier in the year, flashy grey galloper The Mist raced 10 times for two wins (both at Nowra and with Keagan Latham in the saddle) and a second. Again injury unfortunately cut short the racing career of the New Zealand bred stayer. Luckily for The Mist, he found his new home with the daughter of one of his racing owners.
Currently living out his life in lush green paddocks near Gosford on the Central Coast of NSW, he is under going training for a life as a show horse. Reports are that he is also doing well and has taken to his new life quite well, importantly is happy and healthy.
We are happy to hear and see that two of our old stable favourites are thriving in their new homes and thank their new owners for sharing the journey so far with us.
If you also have an ex-race horse that was trained by John, please feel free to get in touch and let us know how they are going, email John@sargentracing.com.au or contact us via social media.
