Meet 'the slowest horse in the world' helping in the fight to fix attendances

She may jokingly call him "the slowest horse in the world" but Jo Foster hopes ten-year-old staying chaser Sigurd could help in the fight against falling attendances.

The three-time Wetherby winner will be the public face of National Racehorse Week later this year and his West Yorkshire trainer believes the visits he makes to meet the public are the sort of community engagement vital to raising racing's profile.

His latest trips to a care home in Bradford and to Ilkley Grammar School were filmed for a video, which also features champion jump jockey Brian Hughes, and will form a key part of the second annual celebration of racehorses, led by Great British Racing, which will run from September 10-18.

They came just as figures show racecourse attendances in May were almost a third below pre-Covid levels.

Foster said at her Menston base eight miles north of Bradford: "The responsibility is on trainers to get out into the community. We need to get racing to an untouched market.

"Society has changed and people are moving away from rural ways. It is more diverse and so many have no contact with horses. This is a practical education.

"The children love interacting with Sigurd, they ask loads of questions and soak it up like sponges. Yesterday just four out of the 20 had been racing but at the end when I asked how many were interested in it they all put their hands up."

A care home visit in National Racehorse Week last yearCredit: David Carr

Foster, who is keen to extend her efforts to other local schools, also believes that old people derive great benefit from Sigurd's trips to care homes accompanied by Shetland pony Yogi, who visits the rooms of those unable to leave the building.

"A lot have dementia, they get stimulated by touching the horse and it sparks memories," she said. "There was one man yesterday who had not been outside since he arrived at the home five or six years ago – until he came out to see Sigurd. It can be a tough day but it's very moving."

Foster sees the chaser as an ideal horse to make visits and said: "He is quiet and so laid-back. He's very receptive to people and senses when those around him are nervous – now he's got his own National Racehorse Week rug, like a stakes winner!"

But she believes others could – and should – follow her lead and said: "Every yard has got a Sigurd and it doesn't take a lot of organising. Trainers don't contribute to society like doctors or nurses and this is a way of doing something."

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