“Ex-racehorses are wonderful athletes and they try their best for you. I hope that this class encourages top riders to ask their local racehorse trainer whether they have a horse that might suit eventing.”

These were the inspiring words of New Zealand event rider Clarke Johnstone after he pocketed an unprecedented first prize of £45,000 in the inaugural Arena Racing Company Racehorse to Eventer Challenge at Cornbury House Horse Trials.

The 38-year-old’s partner was Sparky Lad, an Australian-bred Thoroughbred who previously raced successfully on the Flat.

“This is the biggest prize I’ve won during my career,” added Clarke, who is a two-time team bronze medallist at World Championships and who finished sixth individually and fourth as a team at the 2016 Olympic Games.

“The prize is amazing and the initiative is fantastic, so thank you very much to Jayne McGivern, David Howden and Arena Racing Company.”

Silver-plated horseshoe

Sparky Lad’s owner, Tim Boland, runs Limitless Lodge, a leading breaking and pre-training yard just north of Sydney.

“He pre-trained Sparky and identified him as a horse that could go on to succeed in eventing. Sparky went into training with Chris Waller and he ran more than 30 times and clocked up over AUS$250,000, winning four times and was placed six times.

“Sparky has such a beautiful mind – he is the same every day and tries very hard.” 

Clarke was also awarded the Racehorse to Eventer Challenge Cup, a George III silver perpetual trophy, while Sparky Lad won his weight in KeyFlow horse feed.

The winning owner receives the silver-plated horseshoe of a Derby winner. This year, that was the shoe of Golden Horn, who was victorious in 2015 and who is owned by Jayne McGivern of Dash Grange Stud.

Jayne conceived and created the ARC Racehorse to Eventer Challenge Cup alongside David Howden, president and founder of Cornbury House Horse Trials.

Second for feisty mare

The £2,000 runner-up prize went to Ben Lee Liles and Finch Fancy, a mare who is co-owned by Charlie Ainsworth and who ran in a point-to-point and three National Hunt bumpers.

“She’s very competitive at CCI3* level, but she’s not the easiest to ride as she’s quite feisty,” said Ben. “She loves cross-country and is a great jumper.

“I’ve had some extra help with my dressage recently from Douglas Hibbett to polish things up. We got a personal best in the dressage, so that was amazing.”

Ben was originally sent the mare to train in order to build her confidence over fences.

“When I jumped her, I thought, ‘Wow, here’s a Thoroughbred who wants to go airborne over fences’,” he said.

“I did an 80cm clear round with her at the end of the week and she was brilliant, so I said to the owners after that that if they ever wanted her to have another career, I would have her, and now here we are.”  

‘He was very cheap’

Alexander Tordoff piloted Louise Heard’s Jack Randall into third. The grey gelding ran 14 times on the Flat when trained by Tim Easterby and then Iain Jardine.

“His owner bought him for herself three or four years ago out of a field and having never been over a pole,” said Alexander. “He was very cheap and he’s turned out to be the most lovely, wonderful horse in every way, with a lot of ability and heart.” 

There were 44 starters in the class and many figures from the racing world gathered at Cornbury on Saturday to watch the action. This included Nicky Henderson, Kim Bailey, Ben Pauling and Nico de Boinville.

Former Spice Girl Geri Horner and her husband, Chris Horner, were also spotted at the horse trials.

Main image of Clarke Johnstone and Sparky Lad by Peter Nixon

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