Thoroughbred Makeover Available on Live Stream

Follow the action from home!

2014 competitors Michelle Craig and Nap for Sycamore. Photo by Rough Coat Photography, courtesy of the Retired Racehorse Project.

Hundreds of off-the-track Thoroughbreds have descended upon the Kentucky Horse Park this weekend for the Thoroughbred Makeover and National Symposium, produced by the Retired Racehorse Project. The TB Makeover is a three-day competition welcoming professionals and amateurs alike who entered their only-ever-raced Thoroughbreds in early 2015. Entries compete this weekend in dressage, show jumping, show hunter, eventing, competitive trail, barrel racing, fox hunting, polo, working ranch and freestyle.

Fortunately for those of us far away from Lexington but still wanting to track the action, Speaking of Horses is offering the entire weekend on free live stream. No log-in required: just click that link and you can follow what’s going on! The full schedule of events is available at the Retired Racehorse Project’s website.

If you happen to be around Lexington this weekend, general admission to the Makeover is free, including access to all ten areas of competition, the Makeover Marketplace where you can meet the roughly half of the entries available for sale, and the Sponsor Fair. The top ten in each discipline are called back for the Finals on Sunday; tickets for the Finals are $15. From among the ten individual discipline winners (who earn $5,000 for the title) one horse will be selected by the judges and spectators as America’s Most Wanted Thoroughbred and take home $10,000.

The Makeover has been designated as an official Breeders Cup Festival event, with the Breeders Cup taking place at Keeneland in Lexington in just one week. How fitting that the best weekend of racing in the world coincides with the top talent in off-the-track Thoroughbreds, reminding the racing world and general horse-loving public that these animals are good for more than just running fast.

Keep an eye out for HN’s Thoroughbred Makeover blogger Caitlin Brady and her horse Azorian in Saturday’s Freestyle!