"Specially Slow RACEHorses" Equimillion TEAM
Introducing Kick Up’s “Specially Slow Horses” competition, where speed takes a back seat to versatility.
The Competition
This one-of-a-kind competition invites owners of retired racehorses to showcase their thoroughbred’s athletic prowess to the world.
We are looking for authentic videos of your slow racehorse/s who are thriving in their second career and allow them to become Kick Up’s competitor in the upcoming inaugural Equimilion competition!
Competition winners
We proud to announce the following winners of the “Specially Slow Racehorses” Equimillion Kick Up competition:
Rider name: Ella Dennis
Horse’s current name: Sydneysider
Horse’s racing name: Sydneysider
Age and gender: 11-year-old gelding
Race record: 4-0:0:0
Prizemoney: $650
Sydneysider was, at the time we became acquainted, nothing I was looking for but everything I needed. In late 2018 I found myself in the position of needing a new horse, I was looking for something that had done a bit and could teach me after a long period of riding young horses. My coach became injured during my horse hunt so I got the opportunity to ride some of her horses whilst I was horseless. Syd was one of those horses, he was fresh off the track and just back from a spell. Syd was huge at nearly 17hh, green, fat and lazy, nothing I was really looking for in a horse at the time. Nevertheless I started riding him for some experience and the first couple of rides was not love at first sight but over time I started to see some potential.
I took him to a clinic and jumped him for the first time, the instructor was not impressed with him and advised me against buying him. In true me fashion I was not happy about being told I couldn’t do something so I purchased him that night. Since late 2018 Syd had become my absolute world and taken me from 95 eventing to 2* as well as taking me to Sydney Royal, Melbourne 3 day event and multiple wins and accomplishments along the way. At the end of 2022 Syd and I packed our lives up and moved 10 hours to Scone to work at a pretraining and breaking facility. I am so grateful for Syd igniting my passion for thoroughbred in the racing industry as well as having now retrained multiple OTT’s.
Syd was very slow on the track coming last in a majority of his races and trials. It always surprises me as now in his eventing life we are never lacking speed! Syd means the world to me and thoroughbreds are something I hold very closely to my heart.
Rider name: Tonya Burrowes
Horse’s current name: Gary
Horse’s racing name: Renegade Master
Age and gender: 12-year-old gelding
Race record: 0-0:0:0
Prizemoney: $0
My name is Tonya and my beautiful Thoroughbred is Gary. Gary was born at Bell Farm, on the Central Coast and was bread to race. There was only one problem, Gary is a “Specially Slow Horse”. So he retired from racing and retrained as an eventer with Elsa Vigneau. Gary was Elsa’s first of many retrained Thoroughbred’s. Gary has been in my life now for four years and together we have shared a special bond and competed all over NSW. We cannot wait to be able to compete at Equimillion in eventing with the help of Kick Up For Racing.
Rider name: Grace Shields
Horse’s current name: Riddles
Horse’s racing name: A Question Of Time
Age and gender: 14-year-old mare
Race record: 4-0:0:0
Prizemoney: $650
A Question of Time (Riddles) may definitely not be the fastest thoroughbred you will ever meet, as she loves to get pretty lazy very quickly. Riddles is 16.1hh and 14 years old, she is definitely not your typical chestnut mare stereotype. ‘A Question of Time” got her name from her old owner due to him asking 100 questions all the time. She is such a sweet mare but only to humans, she hates any other animal to exist. Riddles racing history wasn’t great. Of the 5 starts she has been in she has come either second last or last. She has a lot of power at the start but gives up within about 10 seconds. When riddles was retired after people realised how slow she was, she sat in a stable for a month while people walked past her as no one wanted her because she was a ‘ranga mare’.
Eventually a lovely lady Elizabeth Carroll whose sister was an apprentice jockey for the trainer and was frequently at the stables visiting her sister, felt sorry for Riddles and took her home to retrain her and Elizabeth owned her for about 7 years doing everything possible. Elizabeth fell pregnant and so Riddles sadly had to go. This is where we came to find our beautiful ‘ranga mare’ last year!!! Grace and I have been looking for a bigger horse for a few months and fell in love instantly. When you know, you know. Grace and Riddles jumped 1 metre on her first try and Grace found her new partner. Not all smooth sailing when we got her home, a fight with our other horse through a steel gate within 30 mins of getting her home had her out for 6 weeks!! Then a trot down the road a few weeks back into work, she slipped and fell and had a huge haematoma on her backside so another 6 weeks off. Poor Grace and Riddles had a lot of groundwork together before she could even put a foot in the stirrup!! Now they are the best of mates and their future looks bright with every event together.
