Retired Racehorse Project announced today the opening of trainer applications for the 2018 $100,000 Thoroughbred Makeover. Applications will be accepted through January 15, 2018, and trainer approvals will be announced on February 1, 2018.
The Thoroughbred Makeover features competition in 10 different disciplines among recently-retired racing Thoroughbreds with less than 10 months of retraining for a second career. Disciplines offered are barrel racing, competitive trail, dressage, eventing, field hunters, freestyle, polo, show hunter, show jumper, and ranch work.
Horses and their trainers will compete for $100,000 in prize money and the title of America’s Most Wanted Thoroughbred (determined by audience vote) at the Kentucky Horse Park on October 4-7, 2018. The event includes seminars, demonstrations, sponsor fair, and a livestreamed finale featuring the top five horses in each discipline. Many of the horses competing will also be offered for sale.
Professional, amateur, and junior trainers are welcome to apply, and do not need to have acquired their horse at the time of application. Applicants must demonstrate expertise in at least one of the Makeover disciplines through competition highlights, references, and optional video links.
Approved trainers can acquire eligible Thoroughbreds through whatever source they choose, or can ride under contract with an owner. Horses must have raced or had a published work on or after July 1, 2016 and must not have started training for a second career before December 1, 2017.
Thoroughbred Makeover Links:
Rule Changes for 2018
Working Ranch is now referred to as Ranch Work and incorporates elements from the American Quarter Horse Association Ranch Riding and Ranch Trail classes to test the skills required of a working ranch horse. We will no longer be utilizing cattle in this division. We believe this format change will help attract more western entries, as many riders do not have access to work cattle on a regular basis in preparation for the Makeover.
In the Polo division, we have added a 7-minute chukker to the Finale. All five qualifying riders and one volunteer rider will play as if in a game, with the competitive nature and speed being determined by the players and the judges prior to the Finale.
The Competitive Trail division has adopted the rules and scoring guidelines of the International Mountain Trail Challenge Association. The course distance will be condensed to an area that can be observed by two judges. Competitors will continue to negotiate the trail course in small groups that will be randomly chosen.
2017 Thoroughbred Makeover Recap
Proper conditioning is a very important factor in getting the most out of a competition horse. There are two elements to fitness—cardiovascular and musculoskeletal. They are equally important. Both are ideally developed through long slow distance work (LSD).
For some riders, it’s easy to miss the moments in between the big goals like a championship or a long format event, but Jennie Brannigan is savoring her moment today at the Setters' Run Farm Carolina International CCI4*-S, where she took home the win on Tim and Nina Gardner’s FE Lifestyle.
Riders in the CCI4*-S at the Setters’ Run Farm Carolina International CCI4*-S were in for a change this afternoon as Brody Robertson made his show jumping course design debut in the class and built a challenging track that shuffled the top 10.
When Monbeg Zebedee came to Allison Springer’s barn nearly three years ago, she wasn’t sure where he might end up or how far his talent would take him. The Irish Sport Horse gelding (Dignifed van’t Zorgvliet x Bolacreane Dolly) had been purchased out of the Monart sale in Ireland by British five-star rider Kitty King as a sales prospect when he was 3, and King had started him but never competed him.