The inaugural Racehorse to Eventer Challenge Cup at Cornbury Horse Trials carried a lucrative prize – as Steve Dennis reports
As may have been suggested before, if you build it, they will come. The corollary to that might be ‘if you provide a very generous prize fund, they will come’ – and the veracity of the latter assertion was proved at the inaugural £50,000 Arena Racing Company (ARC) Racehorse to Eventer Challenge Cup at Cornbury House Horse Trials in mid-September.
The 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.
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.
Few of the entrants had gained any sort of recognition on the racecourse – several did not race at all – which underlines the importance of such schemes for horses who otherwise might face an uncertain future.
It is a global issue, and the organisers’ 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.
Sparky Lad’s gate-to-wire triumph – he led after the dressage element, maintained his lead through the cross-country phase, and went clear in the show-jumping – was rewarded with a prize of £45,000, 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.
“This is the biggest prize I’ve ever won,” said Sparky Lad’s rider-trainer Clarke Johnstone, who represented New Zealand at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, finishing sixth in the individual rankings.
“He’s such a nice horse and I thought we had a good chance going into the event, he’s been very competitive at 4* level, but to actually pull it off is quite another thing.
“There was a fair bit of pressure going into the final element and the wet weather meant soft ground and that doesn’t really suit him, but we went clear and it was brilliant to win it.”
The 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’Arc de Triomphe winner Golden Horn. It was bankrolled by the Arena Racing Company, which owns and operates 16 racecourses in Britain.
“David 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,” says ARC chief executive Martin Cruddace.
“This 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.”
The hugely experienced Johnstone, who is based in Cirencester, near Cheltenham, took on Sparky Lad in February 2022 – the gelding is owned by Sydney-based Tim Boland, whose prize was a silver-plated horseshoe worn by Golden Horn – and the Antipodean pair worked well together from the outset.
“He’s a lovely horse with a very cool temperament, he’s the same every day,” says Johnstone. “He enjoys his job and always tries his best.
“He finds things pretty easy in all phases, he’s 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.
“I’ve found Thoroughbreds to be very versatile in their second career, they want to work with you, whatever they’re doing. Hopefully Sparky Lad can continue his good form, he’s almost at the top level now, and we’ll be aiming at the world championships.”
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.
They 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.
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 – but just not on the racetrack. It’s a career arc that is mirrored by many former racehorses and could be emulated by very many more, a project close to Howden’s heart.
“This brilliant concept from Jayne McGivern now has committed longevity for the next five years,” he says. “It 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.”
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.
“This kind of event is great to get people thinking about the concept,” says Johnstone. “Hopefully it will drive greater participation – I hope this class encourages top riders to ask their local racehorse trainer whether they have a horse that might suit eventing.”
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