Name: Tataniano

Owner: Lisa Penhorwood

Age: 13

Height: 16.2hh

Nickname: Tat

Favourite pastime: Fuss and attention

Former trainer: Paul Nicholls

Jumps placings 1/12141/1121/35/1/575F/574P/31/4-

 

Whenever the former Andy Stewart-owned Tataniano ran, he drew admiring glances from all who saw him. Tall, black and utterly beautiful, he lapped up the attention as he strode around the ring, enjoying his moment in the limelight.

He was very useful racehorse on his day, rated 160 at best, winning eight times and amassing more than £160,000 in prize money. Two of those wins came at Exeter where he won a novice hurdle in 2009, and scored on his chasing debut in October of the same year, starting at 1-5, and winning by 32 lengths.

He followed up in the Grade 2 in the November Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham’s Open meeting and that same season won the Grade 1 Maghull Novice’s Chase at Aintree.

The following season he opened his account with a handicap chase win at Chepstow, but never quite reached the heady heights of graded successes again, and he was eventually gifted to Lisa Penhorwood who worked for Paul Nicholls for ten years during the era of great horses like Cenkos, Flagship Uberalles and See More Business.

Lisa explained: “They were looking for a good retirement home for Tat, and I said I’d love to have him, so he came to me in the summer of 2014. He retired sound so we decided to hunter chase him and Mary Sanderson trained him at Tiverton. We ran him in hunter chases for a season. He was third in the Totnes and Bridgetown Open at Exeter; he won at Kempton in April 2015, and was fourth in Stratford’s Open Hunter Chase in May. He came home to me in Liskeard for his holiday, and was about to go back into training, but I got a bad kick in the head, and wasn’t sure how long I’d be off work for. I decided to retire him, as I was uncertain if I would be able to pay the training fees.”

Lisa works for Mark Dwyer and Juliet Minton who consign for all the bloodstock sales, and it was at the yearling sales in Ireland, that a colt spun round and kicked me in the side of the head.

“I wasn’t out for too long, as luckily I didn’t have a fracture, but I was very lucky,” she said.

Tat, who was a two-mile chaser and has a natural appetite for speed, is slowly being retrained to begin his showing career, his remarkable good looks and excellent confirmation almost certain to stand him in good stead.

“I am hoping to do a few show clinics with him first to give him some experience and encourage him to slow him down. He’s getting the hang of it, and he’s a lovely horse to deal with. He loves all the fuss and attention.”
Showjumping, however will be kept on the backburner for now. “He’s a very bold jumper and he’ll take off outside the wings, so we’ll concentrate on getting the flatwork right before we start jumping him,” said Lisa who added:

“He’s a lovely quiet horse and he’s brilliant around everyone. He’s such a kind horse. He moves so well so as long as it all comes together, he should do well. He has a good record too, which helps promote the RoR, He’ll be a great ambassador for retired racehorses.”