Olympic eventer turned racehorse trainer Sir Mark Todd will not renew his licence at the end of the season.
Mark has called time on his training career after six years; he told H&H he had been “thinking about it for a while”.
“We’ve been thinking about having a slight lifestyle change again, and wanting to have more free time. With racehorses it’s pretty much 24/7,” he said.
“We’ve only ever had a small team and I only ever did it because I wanted to have a bit of a new challenge, and that was that. I’ve been there and we felt now is the right time.”
Mark and his wife Carolyn recently sold their Badgerstown base and said he they are looking for a smaller property, likely in the Wiltshire area.
“We were lucky the sale of ours went through very quickly, and we’re going to rent somewhere in the short term,” he said.
Mark successfully trained Flat racehorses in New Zealand during his first break from eventing after the Sydney Olympics. He returned to eventing before the 2008 Beijing Games, and retired for a final time in 2019 aged 63 at a ceremony at Burghley, turning his focus to training racehorses again.
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“We’ve cut right down and at the moment have six horses. I might have a couple of runners before Christmas, but from the end of the year that will be it as far as training goes,” he said.
“I’ll probably end up doing a bit more teaching again, and I still want to stay involved in racing to a certain extent. I’ll see what opportunities come up and what ideas I have. It’s all a bit fluid at the minute.
“I love being with horses and working with them, and horses will always be a part of our lives. We’ve got a couple we are involved with in racing, and we might keep one as a broodmare, and we might buy and sell young ones.”
Mark is looking forward to having a bit more time on his hands.
“We want to spend a bit more time travelling and doing whatever. It’s been fairly full on for the last 40 years! There’s no point getting to 90 and saying ‘I wish I’d done that’ because it’s a bit late,” he said.
“The UK has been our home really for the last 40 years, we still have ties in New Zealand and we’d like to be able to go back there and spend a bit more time at some point, so hopefully we’ll have a few more options now.”
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Since joining H&H in 2018, Becky has covered a broad range of equestrian news including welfare matters, veterinary studies, FEI Tribunal hearings and road safety campaigns. She has also interviewed top riders including Scott Brash, John Whitaker and Ian Stark, to name just a few. Becky’s reporting has taken her to Canada for Spruce Meadows and France for Pau five-star, as well as the Royal Highland and Blair Castle International Horse Trials closer to home. She was also a key part of the remote reporting team for the Tokyo Olympics and the Europeans.
