Nominations open for The Jockey Club RoR Horse of the Year 2022
The search is now live for The Jockey Club RoR Horse of the Year as Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) opens nominations via www.ror-events.org.uk to find this year’s worthy winner. The prestigious award will be presented at the RoR Awards Ceremony on 21st January 2023.
The RoR Horse of the Year award is sponsored by The Jockey Club and is open to all RoR registered former racehorses who have demonstrated their versatility and adaptability in retraining for new careers after retiring from racing.
This is the first year that owners of former racehorses can nominate their horse and that there will be a public vote to determine the top three finalists. A shortlist of horses for this year’s award will feature online at www.ror-events.org.uk to allow the public to vote from Thursday 1st December to Sunday 11th December inclusive. RoR Patron and renowned sports broadcaster Clare Balding CBE will then be tasked with selecting the overall winner of The Jockey Club RoR Horse of the Year.
The three finalists will be announced on Wednesday 14th December 2022 and invited to attend the RoR Elite Awards at The Jockey Club Rooms in Newmarket on Saturday 21st January 2023, when the winner of The Jockey Club RoR Horse of the Year will be revealed by Clare Balding CBE.
Since the inaugural award in 2014 won by Whatcanyasay, The Jockey Club RoR Horse of the Year is now firmly established as one of Retraining of Racehorses’ most coveted titles. Previous recipients of The Jockey Club RoR Horse of the Year include well-known and popular former racehorses: Liverpool, Monet’s Garden, Beware Chalk Pit, Monkerty Tunkerty and the incumbent holder of The Jockey Club RoR Horse of the Year in 2019, the late HM The Queen’s horse Quadrille.
The overall winner receives The Jockey Club perpetual bronze trophy, as well as Club Admission and Hospitality for two people for the Opening Day of the 2023 Cheltenham Festival meeting. In addition, each finalist chosen by the public vote will have a specially commissioned video telling their horses’ story which will be premiered at the Awards night.
The Jockey Club RoR Horse of the Year award is presented on the same night as the RoR Elite Awards in showing, eventing, dressage, endurance, polo, hunting and other RoR Series winners.
Di Arbuthnot, RoR Chief Executive, says:
“The stories told in each of the finalists’ videos are always so inspiring and the finalists are the ambassadors for so many former racehorses that are so lovingly rehomed and retrained each year. We receive some wonderful stories from the nominations and it’s undoubtedly going to be a tough decision to decide the shortlist from the hundreds of entries we anticipate.”
Nevin Truesdale, CEO The Jockey Club, says;
“We are delighted that The Jockey Club are again sponsoring the ROR Horse of the Year Award in January. The horses are at the heart of our sport and this award is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the successful second careers that so many thoroughbreds enjoy when they retire from racing.”
Nominations can be made online from Wednesday 9thNovember until Friday 25th November 2022. Those who make the shortlist of three finalists will be notified by Wednesday 14th December. For more information about how to make nominations and full terms and conditions visit www.ror-events.org.uk.