I tried to explain Sizing John to a non-horsey friend of mine recently. “He’s basically Daniel Day-Lewis,” I said. “Devastatingly handsome, Day-Lewis won an incredible three Oscars, then retired from acting. He retrained as a top-class shoemaker, and basically if there were shoe-making competitions, he’d be in the national championship finals with good odds for winning.”

I’m not sure how much clearer that made it, so here I’ll just stick to the facts. No racehorse has yet matched the triple-Gold-Cup-in-a-single-season success of Sizing John, who - along with his jockey, Robbie “Puppy” Power - was victorious in three Gold Cups: Leopardstown, the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Punchestown Gold Cup, all in 2017.

For most, resting on those golden laurels would be more than enough. Not so for Kate Harrington and her beloved “John”, who are set to take on the ITM Racehorse to Riding Horse class at this year’s Dublin Horse Show.

For anyone who witnessed the crowds and heard the cheers for two-time Grand National winner Tiger Roll as he made his Dublin showing debut last year, it seems clear the class is fast becoming one of the show’s most popular. Judged this year by jockey Bryony Frost and the Hon Mrs J.C.G. Cavendish, the focus of the class (according to show guidelines) is to showcase successful Irish-bred or Irish-trained racehorses as “useful and suitable riding horses”.

Pull yourself together

During his racing career, Sizing John was ridden everyday by Kate, whose mother is his dual Classic-winning trainer Jessica Harrington. Unfortunately, in 2019 while having his final schooling session at home before a post-injury comeback run in Listowel, he landed awkwardly over a jump and fractured his pelvis.

“He’s the love of my life,” Kate says. “I remember seeing him pulling up on three legs and I actually ran the other way because I couldn’t deal with it. I ran into the hedge! A couple of seconds later I said to myself: ‘Kate, pull yourself together and go to the horse.’

“Thank God he was weight-bearing, we walked him back to the yard and the vet was on hand straight away. We scanned him and discovered it was a clean fracture of his pelvis.”

Long process

Rehabbing an injury is often a long process.

“He had a lot of muscle wastage, so we felt we needed to build that up,” Kate explains. “I initially started riding him at home at our Commonstown yard and to anybody watching him he was perfect, but for me he wasn’t. I’ve ridden him through his whole racing career with us. He just wasn’t pushing as well as I wanted from behind. He had 10 months in the field beside the gallops so he could watch everything going on.”

New discipline

At the end of August last year, almost three years since his career-ending injury, Sizing John started work with Kate again - this time, with the new discipline of showing in mind. When Kate initially tried to retrain him at home, it was proving quite difficult. Commonstown is where Sizing John was a racehorse. He associates that with going fast, training, galloping - doing everything he loved. The decision was made to send him up to Robbie Power’s home place and for his sister, top-level eventer Elizabeth Power, to help Kate retrain him.

Robbie is not only Sizing John’s former triple-Gold Cup jockey, but is also now an ambassador for Treo Eile, a not-for-profit organisation set up in 2021 to promote the former racehorse.

Robbie says of Sizing John: “It’s taken a lot of care and management to get him back right, and now everyone is reaping the rewards because he looks a million dollars. It’s just very important that these horses are looked after in their retirement and get the life they deserve.

“He’s a great advertisement for the thoroughbred and that there is a good life after racing. I think Sizing John is quite unique in that no matter what type of equestrian sport he competed in, he would probably have been very good at it. Thankfully for me, he competed in racing.”

According to Kate, not only was Sizing John’s injury rehabilitation tricky; his transition to showing has been fairly challenging too.

“He was a full-character horse when he was a racehorse. He could be as quiet as a mouse one minute and then the next he could whip around and buck you off, and he’s a bit the same now. But he’s hilarious – when he goes into that show ring, it’s like he understands, ‘Oh I’m on show here.’ He knows what he’s got to do and he struts his stuff.”

Young horse

In my role as an equine journalist, I’ve seen Sizing John first-hand - both straight after the Cheltenham Gold Cup and, more recently, in the show ring. Without doubt, he is an incredibly handsome gelding with a sanguine presence and elegant movement.

“Obviously, yes, he was a racehorse, but I used to ride him every day and make sure he was going in the correct outline,” explains Kate. “Actually, Henry de Bromhead put that foundation in him because John was with him before us. I have to really thank Rosemary Connors and Henry for putting that in him as a young horse.

“Elizabeth has helped me hugely. When John first went up there, I was away in Japan for two weeks and obviously with mum being sick this year [Jessica Harrington was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022], my role at Commonstown has increased, my workload has increased, but I’ve been trying to get up there once a week.

“Elizabeth has done an absolutely brilliant job with him. I think she loves him even more than I do. She needs plenty of credit because she’s taken a lot of ex-racehorses to the highest eventing level, including Kilpatrick River, September Bliss and Soladoun, who she rode at Badminton last year.”

Big stride

What about Kate? Transitioning from jockey to showing queen isn’t so straightforward either.

“I definitely think I need to get more practice in before Dublin,” she says. “John is a powerful horse; he’s got such a big stride. I find I panic a bit because I’m on top of the horse in front of me quite quickly, so I do need to brush up a bit before the RDS.

“I will probably be nervous because I want him to win. I think John deserves it – for him to come back from two pelvis fractures, a suspensory and a wind injury. For the horse to show such resilience. He’s just got a point to prove that he wasn’t finished on the track. He’s still the champion.”

Dublin Horse Show

“Dublin is such a special place for everyone, it’s probably one of the only shows that’s held right in the centre of the capital of a country,” says Kate.

“It’s brilliant now they have a retrained racehorse class to highlight these really top-class former racehorses having a second career in life.”

Trainer Jessica has long been an advocate for racehorse aftercare and Kate says her mum has been following Sizing John’s showing career closely.

I want him to win. I think John deserves it – for him to come back from two pelvis fractures, a suspensory and a wind injury. For the horse to show such resilience. He’s just got a point to prove that he wasn’t finished on the track.He’s still the champion

“She’s been up to see him at Elizabeth’s a lot. Like us all, she knows it’s a great honour for him to have showing success after having such a great racing career. There are other horses that are going to be competing against him in Dublin which mum has trained too, including his former stablemate Supasundae, who won four or five Grade 1s for us. Also, Woodland Opera, who I actually won a bumper on at Leopardstown.”

Such is the power of a horse; they often stay in people’s hearts long after they have moved on from a yard or from the care of a stable lass. Sizing John is no exception.

“Martina Kearns, who looked after Supasundae and Sizing John when they were both racehorses in the yard, will be there at Dublin,” says Kate.

“She will come to Dublin with me – she’s so proud of the two boys doing so well now.”

And what if Dublin glory is bestowed upon John and Kate? Will they call it a day and retire to the field?

“He loves it too much. He just loves being out and about and doing something. Hopefully during the winter, we’ll do some nice show jumping or events – we’ll keep onwards and upwards.”