The winner of the 2018 charity Magnolia Cup at the Qatar Goodwood Festival is trying to attract budding owners to join a syndicate to buy her winning ride.
Katie Forrest, who took the victory on the George Baker-trained Hurricane Harry on 2 August, has launched a campaign to keep the six-year-old who is being offered for sale on Tuesday (30 October) at Tattersalls’ Autumn Horses in Training sale.
Katie told H&H: “The owners are looking to sell him but I can’t afford to buy him on my own so if I can possibly find a syndicate of people to help share the costs we might be able to keep him.
“He’s been at George’s yard since he was a yearling and is looked after beautifully and it would be fantastic to keep him there. I’ve got far too attached to Harry, he’s so special and such a poppet.
“Ideally we will get a group of people involved in a syndicate and get a good price for him at the sale. It could be three people or 23, I just want to be part of his ownership and know he’s ok.”
Katie, who had been riding out for trainer George and his wife Candida Baker for a few months before the race, found out a week before the Magnolia Cup that she would be riding Harry and said she burst into tears of happiness with the news.
“I’m normally super nervous before a race but all my nerves went with Harry and I had the biggest smile on my face, I just thought I can do this – he’s going to look after me. It was the biggest competition of my life,” she said.
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“He can look like a grumpy man sometimes but then I go into and give him a cuddle and he melts. I’m always spoiling him and grooming him.”
Katie said Harry is fit and ready to race.
“He’s running well and it would be great to keep him in training, he has a few years left racing. If we managed to buy him and he eventually retires from racing I’d love to retrain him – he’s a very clever horse.”
Interested parties can email Katie Forrest on katie.forrest@icloud.com.
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