Howzat! David Cricket bowls over the opposition

There was a particularly appropriate winner of the RoR/NTF Retrained Racehorse Event Championship when Tina Cook, who has converted numerous racehorses into eventers in her long and distinguished career, triumphed on David Cricket, having led from the start.

The seven-year-old, owned by Sarah Pelham, Jim Chromiak, Bridget Biddlecombe and Jane Lawson, by Sirocco, is named after leading racehorse owner David Johnson, who owned the dam, successful National Hunt mare Lady Cricket. David Cricket ran three times for Alan King before ending up in the West Sussex yard where Tina and her racehorse trainer brother Nick Gifford are based.

Tina and David Cricket went into today’s final show jumping round with a fence in hand, which they used up, finishing just 0.2 of a penalty over Jodie Amos and Highland Patriot to clinch the £2,000 first prize.

“He loves his new life,” said Tina, who hopes to take him to the World Young Horse Championship at Le Lion d’Angers in France. “I think the fact that he hasn’t run very much on the racecourse has meant he is much more straightforward. His only weakness is learning the correct showjumping technique, but that is only to be expected. I’m thrilled with him.”

In third was Ballyvaughn ridden by Jodie Amos, both the runner-up and third were previously trained by Caroline Bailey. In fourth was Watergate Bay & Harriet Colderick and in fifth was Rupert Batting with Manyoshu.