Shane Rose riding Virgil competes in the equestrian’s eventing team and individual cross country during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. (Yuki Iwamura/Getty Images)
Andrew Hoy is also connected to the racing world. Ex-racehorses often factored in his career as a young rider in Queensland, and he won a gold medal at the Barcelona Games in 1992 on the thoroughbred, Kiwi. He has recently worked with Racing Victoria, promoting the transition of retired racehorses into equestrian careers. Stuart Tinney’s greatest success also came aboard a thoroughbred, when he won team gold on Jeepster at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Historically, thoroughbreds have been an integral part of the Australian Equestrian Team’s success in eventing. Some of the incredible thoroughbreds who have brought home Olympic medals for Australia include Kiwi (Andrew Hoy – Team gold medal, Barcelona 1992), Sunburst (Wendy Schaeffer – Team gold medal, Atlanta 1996), True Blue Girdwood (Phillip Dutton – Team gold medal, Atlanta 1996), House Doctor (Phillip Dutton – Team gold medal, Sydney 2000), Jeepster (Stuart Tinney – Team gold medal, Sydney 2000), and All Luck (Shane Rose – Team silver medal, Beijing 2008). While there are no thoroughbreds on the Australian team for this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, there were two shortlisted ahead of the original date last year – Koko Popping Candy (Amanda Ross) and Willingapark Clifford (Hazel Shannon) while Shane Rose’s horse for Tokyo, Virgil, has a thoroughbred dam.
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