'We couldn't bear it if we hadn't found him a new home' - Mike Cattermole and social media come to the rescue of ex-racehorse

Ex-racehorse The Whistling Teal has been saved thanks to Mike Cattermole and the power of social media.

The dual Group 3 winner, now 27, was retired in 2007 and has spent the 16 years since at the Sussex home of owner-breeder Felicity Veasey and her husband Jeremy.

But the elderly couple have now moved into a care home. Their house is being sold and there were fears The Whistling Teal would have to be put down if nobody could be found to take him.

Their daughter Serena, who helped run the family stud and used to work for the Jockey Club, said: "We were very worried about what we were going to do with him. We were worried that we wouldn't find anywhere for him to go.

"Mum had him in the stable opposite the kitchen and she used to talk to him every day. I was asking everyone for ages, 'What am I going to do with him?' People take horses in their teens but when they get into their twenties it's difficult."

Enter Mike Cattermole, a racing broadcaster and commentator whom Serena discovered on a chance meeting at Ascot, was a longtime friend of her parents.

Mike Cattermole: put out an appeal on TwitterCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

"I emailed him and it went from there," she said. "He put out an appeal on Twitter and a lovely girl called Natalie King has stepped in and is having him.

"She's based in Gloucester. I spoke to the vet who's looked after him for nearly all his life and he said he'll be absolutely fine, he's an old boy who'll take it in his stride.

"We're all so relieved, we couldn't bear it if we hadn't found him a new home."

King, who has been riding out for Fergal O'Brien since February, recently bought a farm with her boyfriend and was trying to find a companion for her cob Domino, who is also 27.

The Whistling Teal carried the red and black colours first registered by Felicity Veasey's grandfather in 1903 and was trained by her cousin Geoff Wragg to win the Ormonde and St Simon Stakes.

"My wife absolutely adored him and he knew her very well," Jeremy Veasey said. "When he heard her voice in his box, he rushed to go and see her.

"And he looks as though he could race tomorrow. It's amazing, if you looked at him now you'd say why aren't you racing?"

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