Laura Kraut and the brilliant 15.2hh chestnut Calgary Tame have been on lightning form at Royal Windsor — winning Sunday’s CSI5* Manama Rose Stakes and coming second by 0.04sec in Saturday’s Defender Challenge Stakes.
Besides having the edge of “thinking he is 17.2hh”, the 12-year-old Selle Francais gelding also has another potential advantage in the ring —he wears unusual light-weight front shoes, made of rubber-coated aluminium.
The horse, who is co-owned by his breeder Eugenie Angot and Laura’s long-term Stars and Stripes syndicate, began his career with flying Frenchman Julien Epaillard but Laura took over the ride in 2021.
“When Julien had him he had no shoes, because that’s what Julien does, but I didn’t love that, I just didn’t like the feeling of it,” Laura said.
“I always got the impression that he didn’t love the nails but these shoes are rubber coated, so they glue on.
“With these shoes he feels great, he’s been really, really happy with them. I also have Confu in them, as well as a couple of my other horses, and they seem to really like it.
“Knock on wood, they seem to stay on much better than shoes with nails and I have never had one come off! They are also much lighter. We have got to do something [when classes are so close] and every little bit helps!”
‘He’s very quick and very brave’
The “very cool” Calgary Tame has an enormous amount of stride and scope for a little horse, and managed to beat some great rounds in the Manama Rose show stakes, including toppling mid-field leaders Lorenzo De Luca and Violino Il Palazetto by a surprising 1.36sec.
“I watched the first two go (Rob Whitaker with Evert and Joe Stockdale with Ebanking, who finished fifth and sixth) and they were so so quick, I didn’t think I could catch them. They didn’t leave room for anything,” Laura said.
“I followed the same track as them, my horse was just that little bit quicker. He’s tiny, so what would be a normal line for most horses is fast for him. He is just very quick and very brave.”
Laura came to Royal Windsor 10 days after moving her horses from Florida to Holland for the summer and will now head to Peelbergen before picking up the Global Champions Tour in Madrid.
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