news RoR stars to Parade at Newbury before race named in honour of Sir Peter O’Sullevan

Bobs Worth, Carruthers and Rocky Creek on show for RoR

Prior to the running of Saturday’s Sir Peter O’Sullevan Memorial Handicap Chase, there will be a parade of retrained racehorses, featuring two former winners of the Hennessy Gold Cup, Bobs Worth and Carruthers, and a former runner-up, Rocky Creek.

The parade will take place during racing at Newbury this Saturday, December 2, the second day of the Ladbrokes Winter Carnival

The trio of horses are familiar to all fans of jump racing and are each enjoying successful second careers. The three will parade in the paddock before the Sir Peter O’Sullevan Memorial Handicap Chase (1.20pm) and then lead the runners out of the paddock before parading in front of the grandstand for the enjoyment of racegoers as the remainder of the field head to the start.

It is 20 years since ‘The Voice of Racing’, Sir Peter O’Sullevan, retired after his last commentary when Suny Bay took the Hennessy in November 1997, but despite his death in 2015, his legacy to the sport very much lives on.

The Peter O’Sullevan Trust is a valued supporter of Retraining of Racehorses (RoR), British racing’s official charity for the welfare of retired racehorses, and the Trust is the official sponsor of RoR’s racecourse parades. The parades promote the versatility of former racehorses and their suitability for a range of careers after racing.

The winner of the Hennessy in 2011, Carruthers is the older half-brother of this year’s leading Ladbrokes Trophy contender Coneygree, the 2015 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner.

Sara Bradstock, whose daughter Lily will be riding him in Saturday’s parade, said: “Carruthers does pretty much whatever he chooses. He loves and deserves all the attention he gets and is delightfully enthusiastic in any role. He is known in the yard as ‘The Boss’ and always will be.”

Since retiring from racing Carruthers has remained an integral part of the Bradstock family, enjoyed a busy life, from leading the field out drag hunting to giving small children rides around the school. He has also been an excellent school-master for Lily for point–to-pointing and the plan is for him to do some team-chasing in the future.

Formerly trained by Nicky Henderson, Bobs Worth won the 2012 running of the Hennessy Gold Cup, before going on to take the Cheltenham Gold Cup months later.

Since his retirement from the track in 2016, Bobs Worth has been based at Hillwood Stud, run by Charlie and Tracy Vigors.

Ridden today by Charlie, ‘Bob’ has become part of the Vigors family.

He has a wonderful temperament and as well as helping educate the young horses on the stud, he also enjoys hacking, a bit of hunting and jumping, and occasionally providing conveyance for Harry and Oliver, the young children of Charlie and Tracy.

Rocky Creek made two appearances in the Hennessy, his best effort coming when second to Triolo D’Alene, in 2013.

Following his retirement from racing earlier this year, he was given by his owners, the Johnson and Stewart families, to Camilla Orttewell, a work rider for Paul Nicholls, who also assists part time in the trainer’s office.

After a couple of months of well-earned holiday, Rocky Creek has begun the re-training process by hunting locally with the Blackmore and Sparkmore Vale and his new career is set to begin in 2018 when he will be competing in RoR classes.