Former Festival winners to go on parade at Cheltenham

Former Cheltenham winners return to the racecourse next week (15 March) for the 2016 Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) parade on the opening day of the Festival.

All but one of the 10 horses in the 2016 Racing Post RoR parade ran at the 2009 Cheltenham Festival and five of them were victorious.

Heading the “Class of 09” reunion is Champion Hurdle winner Punjabi (pictured top and below)— making his RoR parade debut this year.

After retiring from racing in 2013, Punjabi started his new life with Rachael Kempster at Kinsale stud.

“He is one of the easiest thoroughbreds I have ever had to deal with,” said Rachael.

The pair have recently starting competing in dressage and Punjabi is “adapting well” to his new job.

The other four Festival winners in the line-up from the “Class of 09” are Cappa Bleu, Oh Crick, Mikael D’Haguenet and Forpadydeplasterer.

Also taking part is the 2008 Grand National winner Comply Or Die who now hunts and does RoR dressage competitions.

Former Gold Cup winner Denman (pictured below) who is now enjoying life in the hunting and team chasing field joins the parade ridden by Charlotte Alexander.

 Tranquil Sea (pictured below), the winner of the 2009 Paddy Power Gold Cup, will also be on show after finding a new career in the eventing field with Clemmie Shipp.

From France comes the former Francois Doumen-trained Kasbah Bliss and from Ireland the 2010 Arkle winner Sizing Europe who since retiring last May has won in the show ring.

Related articles:

• Denman ‘absolutely loving’ team chasing
• Denman and Big Buck’s take to the hunting field together
• Grand National runner Tranquil Sea to go eventing

The RoR parades were introduced in 2008 by the charity to showcase the adaptability of racehorses when retrained for a second career.

“It is important for us when putting on the parades to not only include former heroes and old favourites but also horses that have proven their adaptability in other disciplines. We are delighted to have a parade line-up this year that has strength in depth in both categories – 10 class racehorses, each one now excelling in another activity,” said Di Arbuthnot of the RoR.

The Cheltenham parade is at 12.30pm, an hour before the first race on 15 March.

There is also a RoR parade on 7 April at the Aintree Grand National meeting and another planned at Ayr on 16 April at the Scottish Grand National meeting.

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