NZ horse recovers from injury to win at Barbury

Tag : engine oi
New Zealand Olympic hopeful Joe Meyer and Clifton Lush were thewinners of this year's Retrained Racehorse Event Championship atThe St James's Place Barbury Castle Horse Trials.
The New Zealand-bred Clifton Lush finished the class on hisexcellent dressage score and gained his owner a bonus of£1500 prize money sponsored by Retraining of Racehorses (RoR)and the National Trainers Federation.
There were 24 entries in the class that is run at Open Intermediate(OI) level. All horses must have a Weatherby's passport though donot necessarily have to have raced. Clifton Lush was however one ofmany in the class that are now having a second career, having racedin New Zealand on the flat as a two-year-old. The nine-year-oldarrived in the UK three years ago but in May last year slipped inthe yard and broke his withers, breaking nine vertebrae. He was boxrested for three months. "We didn't write him off and decided justto give him time to heal," said Joe.
"The girls in the yard worked really hard looking after him,getting up in the night to make sure he was all right." Joe tookhim to Portugal this spring to compete in the one star where hegained a top 10 placing. "It was good just to have the time withhim and since then he has gone from strength to strength. We gothim as a very nice horse but he has a fantastic brain is a realtrier and actually has heaps more in him."
In The Purple, who has been around Badminton three times - twicewith Lucy Wiegersma and once with Matthew Wright, gained secondplace with Sarah Stretton in the saddle. The 15-year-old was boughtby his owner Jane Starkey from Doncaster Sales as a four-year-old.
While Frenchman's Creek might have finished at the lower end of theclass, he has the honour of an illustrious career on the track. The14-year-old retired from racing only three years ago after a fallin the Grand National and a six-year career that included four winsincluding the William Hill three-mile Handicap Chase at theCheltenham festival. He has been produced in eventing by his ownerPanda Christie.
"Panda bravely took him on," said his breeder and former trainerHugh Morrison. "He was always a highly strung racehorse and to gethim to do this after six years in training is I think amazing. Hedoes however have an amazing engine and I am sure if he hadn't beena racehorse he would have been a Badminton horse," said Hugh, whocame to Barbury to watch his homebred compete.