Former Simon Dow-trained gelding was a four-time winner at his local track before taking up position as racecourse ambassador for the Derby venue
A horse gets only one chance at the Derby, one chance at the great Epsom showpiece, so hometown hero Corazon Espinado – who spent his entire career within sight and sound of the Derby circuit – has experienced more big occasions at this world-famous racecourse than all the superstars of the sport.
He finished down the field on the undercard when Masar and Serpentine won the world’s most famous Flat race in 2018 and 2020, but made his mark in some style when winning valuable handicaps on Oaks day in 2019 and 2021, sharing the limelight with Classic-winning fillies Anapurna and Snowfall.
A life after racing: Jockey Club completes full set of ‘horses for courses’ equine ambassadors
This year Corazon Espinado – whose name translates into English as ‘broken heart’ or ‘thorny heart’ – will be back at the home of the Derby and Oaks festival but in a different role, the emphasis not on exertion but on education.
The ten-year-old has recently become the Racecourse Ambassador at Epsom under the ‘Horses For Courses’ initiative overseen by Retraining of Racehorses (RoR), Britain’s official charity for the welfare of former racehorses.
“He was the obvious choice for us,” says Dara McKenna, senior communications executive at the Jockey Club. “It was all put together by Amy Bone, the Owners & Trainers manager at Epsom.
“She was looking for an Epsom specialist, a horse who had been trained locally, a well-known, well-loved horse integral to the racecourse. Corazon Espinado was all of these things.
“The expectation is that he will attend on certain racedays – not the Derby or Oaks, that’s not the angle – and his role is to educate people who may not know that much about racing about the options for racehorses when they move on from the sport.
School initiative
“He’ll be there to meet and greet on our family days, at the Bank Holiday meeting, when there are youth events such as the Racing To School initiative [children visiting the racecourse as part of their school day].
“It’s rare for so many people to be able to get up close to a racehorse – any horse, these days – and it’s a really important sensory tie that can bond people to racing.”
Life after racing for Corazon Espinado is generally a case of the old saying ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’.
Not only will Epsom remain his place of work – part-time now, of course – but he is still being looked after by Laura Robinson, the groom who took him on as a wet-behind-the-ears yearling on his arrival at the Clear Heights Stables of trainer Simon Dow, just a stone’s throw from the winning post described by the legendary Italian owner-breeder Federico Tesio as the main reason for the Thoroughbred breed’s existence.
The pace of his life is very different now, though. Many ex-racehorses stay busy in a myriad of competitive disciplines when their racing days are done, but Corazon Espinado is living the quiet life, putting his four feet up, basking.
“I call him ‘Pickle’ and he lives a very chilled life now, the lap of luxury, stable, field, stable, field,” says Robinson, who is still an integral member of the Clear Heights team after 20 years at the yard.
Goes with the flow
“He’s a bit arthritic in a foreleg so he doesn’t do a lot, but he certainly doesn’t mind that. He spends his days turned out in a big field with ten or 11 friends, including his best pal Timmy, who is 29, and he lives a very mellow life. He isn’t the pack leader, I’d say, he just goes with the flow.
“My son Kasper takes him for a hack now and again but otherwise he just gets spoiled rotten, mints, carrots, whatever he wants. He has a very loving character and it’s so lovely to have him here. He’s my buddy.”
His nickname ‘The Lawnmower’ provides a telling insight into his daily routine, metaphorically a long way from his former life but not geographically, as the commute from his big field of daydreams to his new ambassadorial office is only around 20 minutes, give or take the usual traffic woes of London’s outlying suburbia. His old boss remembers him with affection, is looking forward to seeing him again.
“We bought him as a yearling and he was really great for us,” says Dow. “He ran for my main patron Robert Moss, a great supporter of the yard, and it was a privilege to have him.
“Every trainer at the Epsom racing centre wants a horse to represent them at the track, and more so on the big days, and he did that for us consistently and at a high level.
“Perhaps there was an element of chance involved at one point, because he was set to be sold to Macau as a three-year-old but for some reason the vet turned him down. So he stayed with us, and was always a pleasure to have around.”
Epsom is not a straightforward test for a horse, a switchback track with a sharp curving descent and a pronounced camber up the home straight, but Corazon Espinado had the physical attributes to literally take it all in his stride.
Square horse
“He’s sort of a square horse, not big, not tall, not leggy, but compact,” adds Dow. “He had the right type of conformation for Epsom, had the balance to cope with the track.
“You might say he epitomised that period in the history of Epsom’s training yards when we were a little stuck for top-quality horses. But he had another sort of quality, he was a consistent handicapper who always did his best – quality doesn’t always have to mean a Derby horse.
“It will be nice to see him in his new role. Every trainer wants to know their horses are doing well after their racing careers are over, and social media is a big help in keeping up with them when they’ve moved on. But it’s very special that I’ll still see him regularly at the races, representing his home track where he did so well.”
Corazon Espinado won four times on turf and all those wins came in his back garden of Epsom, with his other victories gained on the all-weather circuits at Kempton, Lingfield and Wolverhampton.
He saved the best of his home performances until last, recording his final success in June 2021 when coming clear to win a £50,000 handicap over an extended mile by 3½ lengths.
Proud mummy
It’s Robinson’s favourite memory of his racecourse career – “I was a very proud mummy that day” – and she is looking forward to taking him back to the scene of his former glories later this summer.
“It’ll be his first time back on a racecourse with all the crowds since he retired, and I think he’ll quite enjoy the attention,” she says. “He’ll get used to it, it’ll be a nice change for him, and he’ll like people petting him.”
Corazon Espinado will be doing his bit for the cause. While the future versions of Masar, Serpentine, Anapurna and Snowfall enthral the cognoscenti, he’ll be drawing in the casual fan, a gateway horse to spark awareness and curiosity, opening the door to perception that there is more to a racehorse than racing. And all while living his best life.
“These horses have a great connection with people,” adds McKenna. “Racegoers might have seen him in action at Epsom, now they will see him again in a different light, they can join the dots between the two aspects of a horse’s life and it becomes very special.
“He’s like the personality of the racecourse come full circle. Interaction with a horse elevates raceday into something unique for so many people, it really is a big thing, and it works like magic. We’re very lucky to have him.”
• Visit the Epsom website and the Retraining of Racehorses website
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