Colin Tizzard & Davy Russell to judge at the 2018 Dublin Horse Show

23 Jul 2018

National Hunt stars to judge the popular Racehorse to Riding Horse on Saturday August 11

Rule the World, Don Cossack, Boston Bob and Mossbank are the headline attractions in this year’s Racehorse to Riding Horse competition at the Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ of Ireland at the Stena Line Dublin Horse Show. Going strong for nine years, Irish Thoroughbred Marketing sponsor the very popular class in which the former greats of the racing world are judged to see which of them, in their retirement, has made the best transition to become a riding horse.

This year’s field is packed with talent. Along with the already mentioned Cheltenham Gold Cup winner 2016 (Don Cossack), 2016 Aintree Grand National winner (Rule the World), 2014 Punchestown Gold Cup winner (Boston Bob), and last year’s winner of this class Un Atout will be back to defend its title. They will be joined by other talents such Cheltenham winner Noble Prince, Annacotty and Baily Green in what is a rare chance to see these athletes up close and personal, and to determine how these former stars of the track have adapted to another discipline.

Alongside the past masters of national hunt racing will be two veterans of the flat in Jamesie and Snaefell. Judging all the entrants this year will be three-time Champion Jockey, Davy Russell, who will ride each animal, and Colin Tizzard, trainer of the 2018 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Native River. They will be examining them using the same judging methods used for the other showing classes at the Show: conformation, gait, movement, etc.

Between them the field has combined winnings of millions of euros and all the horses in the class have either been bred or trained in Ireland, with a selection of them formerly resident in the yards of Ireland’s great trainers, such as Gordon Elliot, Mouse Morris, Willie Mullins, Jim Dreaper and Michael Hourigan, amongst others.

With all this talent on display, the judges will have a difficult task on their hands and because the Racehorse to Riding Horse class is also part of the Public Judging Competition the public are invited to see just how difficult it is to select the winning line-up.  After examining the entrants as they are put through their paces around Ring 1, attendees get a chance to win €1,000 by submitting their own judging selections, and if the judgement tallies with that of Colin and Davy they are in with a chance of winning. Entry forms and all public judging details will be available on the day at Ring 1.

Full list of entrants:

1. Annacotty
2. Baily Green
3. Boston Bob
4. Certerach
5. Don Cossack
6. Jamesie
7. Mobile Sizer
8. Mossbank
9. Mr Cosmopolitan
10. Nanaimo
11. Noble Prince
12. Rule the World
13. Sizing Australia
14. Snaefell
15. Sure Reef
16. The Amarillo Kid
17. Un Atout