news Fantastic response to the RoR Virtual Showcase

The third year of the RoR Showcase offered a new experience for all when unable to stage it’s annual event live, Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) hosted this popular event online with four evening sessions over the first three weeks of December. The sessions attracted a bumper audience of over 900 people registering to attend including viewers from France, Germany and the USA.

Previously this event, generously supported by the Horseracing Betting Levy Board (HBLB), has been held at Aintree International Equestrian Centre and Hartpury University and College. This year, by going online, the RoR Virtual Showcase aimed to reach a wider and more diverse audience than would have been possible had it been held live. Viewers were able to get involved by submitting questions to the experts via the live Q & A sessions.

The line-up of panellists included Anna Lisa Balding, wife of leading racehorse trainer Andrew, Olympic athletes Richard Davison and Tina Cook together with former British Eventing Performance Manager, Yogi Breisner. This expert panel were joined by experienced competitors, vets, equine physios, retrainers and coaches with each session hosted by a professional broadcaster in Nick Luck and Mark Hayward.

The RoR Virtual Showcase kicked off on Wednesday 2nd December with the opening session ‘A Racehorse’s Life Before Retraining’ and those who registered to attend had the chance to win a signed copy of Clare Balding’s latest bestseller, Heroic Animals: 100 Amazing Creatures Great and Small. Those that registered were put into a draw and the lucky three winners are Heidi Cruickshank, Vanessa Hill and Kate Attwood.

The feedback from each of the sessions has been fantastic with viewers comments including: “Super session. So privileged to have such an expert panel” and “Thank you so much for this informative and helpful webinar. Subject to a successful vetting I will be the proud owner of an ex-racehorse in the very near future and found the advice given invaluable.”

Di Arbuthnot, Chief Executive of RoR, said: ‘The Showcase was a huge success and some fabulous advice was given by our panellists at each stage of a horse’s retraining. I would like to thank the HBLB for their ongoing support of this fabulous event and I hope everyone came away with something to inspire them with their former racehorses.”

Each session of our RoR Virtual Showcase is now online and available to view:

Session 1: Wednesday 2^nd December, 7pm; ‘A Day in the life of a Racehorse’ To watch recording click here.

Session 2: Tuesday 8^th December, 7pm; ‘Sourcing, Assessment and Early Retraining’ To watch recording click here.

Session 3: Wednesday 9^th December, 7pm: ‘Versatility and Suitability’ To watch recording click here.

Session 4: Wednesday 16^th December, 7pm: 'Retrained, Results and Rewards' To watch recording click here.

RoR would like to thank everyone who took part in the showcase, trainers, vets, competitors, attendees and our generous sponsors, HBLB. We hope you enjoyed each session.