Hunting For The Winner's Enclosure

It’s not just exracers that enjoy the hunting field, dozens of current stars relish a ‘day off’ following hounds, says Catherine Austen

- Catherine Austen

LOOK around any hunting field in the British Isles — and the USA — and you will find an ex-racehorse enjoying a second career. They will range from Cheltenham Gold Cup and Group One winners to horses that never made it anywhere near the winner’s enclosure. This autumn, a picture of champion National Hunt jockey Richard Johnson hunting the recently retired Menorah, a winner at both the Cheltenham and Aintree Festivals, with his young son Caspar on the lead rein, went down a storm on social media.

But what about racehorses in training? Do modern trainers still use hunting as an educational tool — or a “sweetener” — in the way their predecessors did, or are their elegant charges just too valuable to risk?

“We send quite a few of our horses, particularly the older ones, hunting,” says 10-time champion trainer Paul Nicholls. “People say it sweetens them up, but I also find it is good for fitness — it does them the world of good.”

Paul’s Ditcheat stables is in the heart of the Blackmore and Sparkford Vale country, and horses from his yard hunt when hounds meet locally.

“Last season Silviniaco Conti stayed out until 3pm five days before he ran in the King George VI Chase at Kempton — he loved it. And Rocky Creek’s only good run of last winter, when he won at Sandown, was five days after he’d been hunting,” says Paul. “Pacha Du Polder [who won the Foxhunter at the Cheltenham Festival in March] went out quite a lot. Just A Par [who ran in the Grand National] went as well, as did Wonderful Charm.

“You’ve got to be sensible with them, and you want to take the ones with the right temperament, but ours jump out hunting and do proper days. It’s great fun for them, and it is nice for people to see them, as well.”