Aintree Grand National winners, Grade One winners and history makers all feature in the line-up for this year’s Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) parade on the opening day of the Randox Health Grand National Festival.
The RoR Parade, generously sponsored by the Peter O’Sullevan Charitable Trust, takes place at 12.30pm in the parade ring on Grand National Thursday, April 4, 2019.
The winner of the 2014 Grand National, Pineau De Re, now enjoying a successful second career eventing, returns to feature in the parade. He is one of six former Grand National Festival winners in the nine-horse parade that showcases the alternative equine disciplines former racehorses excel in. The list of Aintree victors also includes the three-time Topham Chase winner Always Waining, as well as El Dancer, Peddlers Cross, Walkon and Saphir Du Rheu.
Formerly trained by Paul Nicholls, the handsome grey Saphir Du Rheu won the G1 Mildmay Novices’ Chase at the 2015 Grand National Festival. He was also runner-up in the G1 Stayers’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and finished fifth in a G1 Cheltenham Gold Cup, however, after being pulled-up in the 2018 running of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, he was retired and shortly after joined Charlotte Alexander to begin his second career.
Alexander, who had the pleasure of riding both Denman and Silviniaco Conti in their post-racing careers, said of Saphir Du Rheu: “He came to me last April and then had a break before starting training for his new career.
“In his first season team chasing, he has progressed from novice to open classes and he is now the lead horse for the famous Boring Goring Open Team Chase team.
“He has also turned into a super hunter and hunts with the Beaufort. He will jump everything from the stiff park railings to hairy hedges. He is my ‘show off’ horse.
“Saphir is very athletic, bold and intelligent. Going forward the aim is to do some eventing. We recently completed our first BE100 class and he is showing a great aptitude for dressage and showjumping, as well as being a machine across country.”
The journey of Always Waining towards an active second career was rather less rapid than Saphir Du Rheu’s. Always Waining made Aintree history when winning three consecutive runnings of the Topham Chase (2010, 2011 & 2012) and he was retired from racing the following year after the 2013 Grand National. However, it was not until four years later that he started being properly retrained. Now, at the age of 18, Always Waining is thriving, enjoying hacking and hunting as well as doing some working hunter show classes.
The RoR parade line-up is completed by The Queen’s Barbers Shop, Wild West, the 2017 Supreme Champion at the RoR National Championships at Aintree and the former Sue Smith trained chaser turned exemplary hunter, Cloudy Too.
Di Arbuthnot, Chief Executive of RoR, said: “There is a great line-up for this year’s Aintree parade featuring some wonderful examples of the racehorse’s adaptability and versatility.
“The team at Aintree are great supporters and promoters of the charity and we would also like to thank the Peter O’Sullevan Charitable Trust for their most generous sponsorship.”
The parade is due to take place at 12.15pm, on Grand National Thursday, April 4.