The lone Thoroughbred competing at the Olympics is Bold Venture (AUS)
By Maribeth Kalinich
Thoroughbreds were once the go-to breed for horse sports. Just 30 years ago you would see many a retired racehorse competing in hunter-jumper, show jumping, dressage and cross country.
But the Thoroughbred went out of fashion as a sport horse replaced by European warmbloods such as Holsteiners and Hanovarians.
Thought to be a bit too fragile as a sport horse, with the help of Retired Racehorse Project and the Real Rider Cup the breed is coming a bit more back into vogue for sport riders.
Except for at the 2024 Olympics where the breed is represented by one lone Thoroughbred competing for the Australian Equestrian team.
Bold Venture, whose Jockey Club name was Hell on Wheels and is now known as “Bentley” by his friends, qualified for the reserve Eventing team.
Eventing, a three-day competition tasked with three different equestrian disciplines, was held at Versailles. Day one featured dressage with day two the cross-county test followed by the precision of show jumping.
Bentley’s participation in the eventing came about as a result of Australian rider Kevin McNab’s horse Don Quidam sustained a soft tissue injury and was forced to retire.
Reserve rider Shenae Lowings and Bold Venture participated in the jumping part of the competition in McNab and Don Quidam’s place.
Bold Venture had three unremarkable unplaced race starts at Northam and Bunbury in 2016 before going on to a new career in which he has emerged as a superstar.
And Bold Venture would be a star for Lowings at the Olympics.
The pair did Australia proud jumping a lovely round with just two rails down. They were followed by her teammates Shane Rose with one rail down and then Chris Burton, who executed a perfect clear and then went on to finish second in the individual competition to grab a silver medal.
Click for Olympic Eventing Results
Click for Eventing Final Medals
Top Australian eventing rider Lowings has been riding since she was five years old, and horses are in the blood. Her father and uncle trained trotters in their younger years and her grandfather was an old-time bookie at the races.
“Every Saturday as a kid, we would go to the races, so I had a lot of exposure to horses and loved being around them. As soon as I was old enough, I asked for a pony, and it hasn’t stopped since!” Shenae said with a laugh In an interview with Victoria Racing Club
A self-confessed ‘crazy kid’ who would go out in the bush to jump fallen trees, when Shenae discovered a horse sport called eventing she was hooked.
Growing up in Western Australia, Shenae made the move east to base with Prue Barrett after a few years of ‘competition back and forth’. Barrett was the Equestrian Australia High Performance Coach for Eventing at that time.
Shenae’s first Australian team nomination came in 2015 as a Young Rider but her career moved up a notch when she started riding a quirky off the track Thoroughbred named Hell on Wheels who would soon have a new name.
Some may be familiar with the famous American racehorse who won the 1936 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes named Bold Venture.
Shenae’s 14-year-old bay version was sired by Devaraja (NZ) and out of Australian mare Royal Zam by Zamoff (NZ)
Hell on Wheels had a short and inauspicious racing career with three starts, for no wins and no prize money.
Discovered on Facebook, Shenae liked the look of him and bought him sight unseen for $1,000 from trainer Gino Poletti.
Bold Venture’s first FEI eventing competition in 2018 was equally unpromising in terms of results. While Shenae won the class on another of her horses, Bold Venture’s debut onto the international stage resulted in 22nd place after a few problems on cross country portion of the event. But his rider was not discouraged.
“He was always a great jumping horse and, like most Thoroughbreds, he’s great on cross country, so I knew I had those boxes ticked. But it was a question of how good I could I get him in the dressage phase and, as we started to move up from 3* to 4* level I realized he was coping with pressure of movements very comfortably. The more I asked of him in the flatwork, the better he got.” Lowings told Victoria Racing Club.
And now they are both Olympians!
