Racing stars to parade at Cheltenham Festival

Major racing stars are to put in a guest appearance at Cheltenham Festival next week, including Gold Cup winner Denman and Champion Hurdle winner Punjabi.

‘One in a million’

The Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) parade will welcome 10 ex-racers, nine of which ran at the 2009 Festival, and five of which were winners.

Leading the parade will be Punjabi, who makes his RoR parade debut. Since retiring from racing Punjabi has been with Rachael Kempster at Kinsale Stud in Shropshire. The pair recently started competing in dressage together. According to Rachael Punjabi is a “one in a million horse”.

“He is one of the easiest Thoroughbreds I have ever had to deal with,” she said. “He loves his new job and is adapting really well to dressage.”

Champion show horse

Other horses in the parade include Festival winners Cappa Bleu, who is now doing low-level dressage and showing; Mikael D’Haguenet, who is competing successfully at Elementary level dressage; Oh Crick will compete in RoR eventing this year; and Forpadydeplasterer, who has won the RoR class at the Royal Dublin Show for the last two years.

Travelling from France is World Hurdle runner-up Kasbah Bliss, who has been retrained by an international dressage rider.On his return to France he will take up residence at the Musee du Cheval (Living Museum of the Horse).

Denman retired in 2011 and is now enjoying life as a hunter and team chaser.

Former heroes

The parades were introduced in 2008 by the RoR, to showcase the versatility of retired racehorses.

They are now feature at a number of major jump racing festivals and an additional parade is planned this year at Ayr, during the Scottish Grand National meeting.

Di Arbuthnot chief executive of RoR said: “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.

The parade will take place at 12.30pm on Tuesday 15 March.