Gold Cup winner Papineau who turned remedy horse dies age 24

Gold Cup winner Papineau, “a champion each on and off the observe”, has died aged 24.

Godolphin’s gelding spent a lot of his retirement offering equine assisted remedy in hospices and hospitals. He was a finalist for the inaugural Sir Peter O’Sullevan Charitable Belief Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) Neighborhood Impression Award, and his achievements have been celebrated on the RoR Awards on 31 January.

Papineau was “in glorious well being” till he was very not too long ago recognized with coronary heart points and the choice was made for him to be put down.

“Papineau was a horse who did much more for others, each inside and outdoors of our trade, in his retirement as he did all through his profession,” mentioned Liam O’Rourke, Godolphin’s director of stud, stallions and breeding.

“He was a lot liked and will probably be a lot missed.”

Papineau, a son of Singspiel, was bred by the late Peter Winfield and purchased on the Tattersalls December Sale in 2000. He travelled to Eire and was raised at Blackhall Stud in Co. Kildare, earlier than beginning coaching with André Fabre.

He joined Saeed bin Suroor in early 2004, successful the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot that summer season with Frankie Dettori within the saddle.

“Papineau was a pleasure to coach, and his Gold Cup win at Ascot was a really big day certainly. His achievements after his racing profession are one thing that the entire crew needs to be extremely pleased with,” mentioned Saeed.

In 2005, Papineau was retired from racing and retrained, having fun with dressage, displaying and life as a household hack. He additionally frolicked as a nanny at Godolphin’s pre-training facility and has taken half in lots of parades.

He stepped again from his second profession for a quieter life at Woodditton Stud, the place he was sorted by Geraldine Jones and her daughter Megan. However his carers discovered he was not fairly prepared to completely retire, so Papineau discovered a brand new objective in equine-assisted remedy, visiting Newmarket Hospital and East Anglia’s Kids’s Hospices. It was for this work that he was recognised as a finalist within the RoR neighborhood affect award.

In a video proven on the awards night at The Jockey Membership Rooms in Newmarket, Geraldine described him as “extremely comfortable and delicate”.

“He simply is aware of – if you happen to’re having a foul day, he’s all the time there to pay attention,” she mentioned.

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H&H senior information author

Lucy is an skilled information journalist, reporter and presenter. Since becoming a member of the Horse & Hound crew in 2015, Lucy has reported from main international sporting occasions together with the Tokyo Paralympic Video games and a number of European Championships, in addition to Badminton, Burghley and London, to call a couple of. She has coated present affairs and sports activities information throughout the total spectrum of equestrian disciplines and racing, in addition to human and equine welfare, trade information and courtroom circumstances.