Syndicate members sought for Laura Collett’s top ride Rayef

Laura Collett is seeking to form a syndicate, in order to keep the ride on her top horse, Rayef.

The 14-year-old bay gelding, who was long-listed for the Olympics, is not available on the open market. But his owner, Jason Houghton — who is understood to be going through a divorce — has given Laura until 1 March to form a syndicate.

Laura hopes to sell 25 shares at £5,000 each, to cover a two-year period.

“It’s a lease of the ownership,” Laura told H&H. “He’s going to run under the Team Collett name, so he’ll basically be mine, then we will reassess after two years.

“If he does have an injury in those two years, then we will put another of my young horses in; we don’t want people to feel that they don’t have anything [if Rayef is injured].”

Rayef missed the end of last season, due to what Laura described as “a bit of heat in his leg” but is back in work, jumping and cantering — and is being aimed at Badminton.

Last season, he was third in the CIC*** at Aachen and sixth at Bramham CIC***. Rayef made his debut at Badminton in 2011, coming eighth. That result helped Laura gain her first senior squad call-up, for the 2011 European Championships — at the age of just 21.

“I think he’s come on from then, and can hopefully get a good result [at Badminton],” said Laura.

“Then perhaps we might be up for selection for the European Championships.

“He’s a high-class horse and he’s definitely good enough to be competitive at the very highest level,” she added.

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