'It must be the first time Frankel has finished second in anything' - 11-year-old among young racing writers recognised on awards night

Lilian Corbett and 11-year-old Charlotte Cornish scooped the prizes at the inaugural Young Writers on Horseracing awards in Newmarket on Friday evening.

The new initiative is sponsored by the Wilmington Trust, with prizes handed out at the National Horseracing Museum by one of the trustees of the sponsors, Josie Reed, who is the sister of leading jumps trainer Nicky Henderson. 

Reed was the driving force behind the scheme, which involves local schools and has been developed to replace the Martin Wills Awards, which were discontinued in 2017 after 25 years.

Corbett, from Linton Village College, won the 16 and over category for her entry Shergar. Remarkably, the winner of the under-16 category was 11-year-old Cornish, from Bottisham Village College, who penned A Second Chance, about the retraining of racehorses, and beat off fierce competition from Harvey Shilson, also from Bottisham, whose entry, More Than Just A Horse, was about Frankel. 

Honorary trustee Christopher Tregoning later joked that "it must be the first time Frankel has finished second in anything".

The finalists at the Young Writers on Horseracing Awards

One of the winning entries

A Second Chance - by 11-year-old Charlotte Cornish  

Newmarket has a long history of racing, for many years racing has drawn crowds since the reign of James I, with the racecourse being founded in 1636. Whilst racing has stood the test of time and lasted many years in Newmarket, a racehorse’s career is fleetingly brief.

Flat racehorses retire after an average of four years, between the ages of two and six, leaving many years of life.

Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) is British horseracing’s official charity for the welfare of racehorses that have retired. It believes a horse should have a second chance to live a new life outside racing. On average, 7,000 horses leave racing each year. That is 7,000 new beginnings. The Rothschild Yard at Newmarket Racing Museum (NHRM) was officially opened in 2016 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It retrains ex-racehorses, housing six at a time. Since 2016, it has retrained 80 horses giving them a new way of life. Their famous Flat racehorse residents have included Big Orange, Goldream, Kingsgate Native, Battaash and jump stars Penhill, Big Bucks and Our Vic.

Each horse may stay for one to three months, depending on the need of the individual. During their stay they have a routine where they exercise on a walker for 20 to 40 minutes each day. This is comfortingly familiar as they are used to the walker from their racing days and spend time in the turn out paddock. This is a paddock for exercise, rather than grazing because grass is not part of racehorse’s diet, they are fed haylage (fermented hay).

In the arena they are taught how to change their body shape from a racehorse to a general hobby horse.

Lesley, a volunteer at NHRM, said: “A racehorse learns to be pushed out flat (to get their nose in front), whereas a ‘riding horse’ is pulled back in. They need to learn to use their energy to go up rather than out (containing their energy). Different muscle groups have to be developed to move differently in these ways. 

"It’s like you carrying a small child on your shoulders and then you learn to carry the child in a piggyback ride. That would require different muscles to be developed. Think about retraining Usain Bolt, a sprinter, to do something like a heptathlon – learning different skills.”

Retrained racehorses can go on to have varied careers such as dressage, polo, eventing, show jumping and therapy horses. The lives of many people are enriched by ex-racehorses. Newmarket Horse Racing Museum and the Retraining of Racehorses charity provide the opportunity for ex-racehorses to have this second chance.

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