A LAZY racehorse has turned into a prize-winning eventer after giving West Littleton rider Harry Meade a winning ride at Barbury Horse Trials.

Meade took the £2,000 first prize in the Retraining of Racehorses class with a versatile new ride, Sparky’s Reflection.

The bay gelding was originally trained over hurdles by Henrietta Knight but has since had a varied career with his owner Amy Martin, including Pony Club, hunting, advanced eventing – as well as galloping along the Norfolk coast.

“Having come from Henrietta, he’s probably had as good a start as any eventer, and he’s been a real family horse with Amy,” said Meade.

“He might have been a lazy racehorse, but he’s a sweet, charming character and I’d like to see how far he can go in eventing.”

Zoe Wilkinson finished second on Craignure and racehorse trainers’ daughters Kristina Cook (Watergate) and Harriet Dickin (Tilt du Chatelier) came third and fourth.

As Cook completed a clear showjumping round, she was clearly thrilled and through a broad smile she said: “Wow - that feels like I’ve just won gold at the Olympics, Wally (Watergate) tried so hard, thoroughbreds are such a generous breed.”

Ginny Howe led going into the final jumping phase on Creeslough, but the horse put in an abrupt stop at a fence on a slope.

Meanwhile, local event riders Sir Mark Todd, Paul Tapner and Tim and Jonelle Price performed an awesome display of team work and speed to win the JCB Champions Challenge run in aid of the Injured Jockeys Fund on Saturday.

The antipodean eventing team knocked the jump jockeys from their two-year reign with a series of seamless baton changes. Jump jockeys Richard Johnson, Wayne Hutchinson, Tom Scudamore and Tom Bellamy were unable to close the gap following a messy baton change between Scudamore and Swindon’s Hutchinson early on.

“That was great”, Todd said, who is set to ride at his seventh Olympics at Rio next month. “But where are the jump jockeys - are they still going!?”

Reybridge rider David Doel clinched a second spot in one of the novice sections on Rainstown Star and third place in another section on Cracker Jack.