Tribute To A Champion - Eros

This article is from the August 2019 Horse Deals magazine.

So often the breeders get all the reflected glory from a Champion horse, but successful Belgian jumping horse breeder, Tom de Craene commented; they must end up in the right places and get the right chances. Breeding is one thing, production is make or break. As far as his intended life on the racetrack was concerned, Eros was a total failure. He was, according to breeder Chris Turnbull, “a duffer” and sacked after only a few barrier trials. However, fate was to intervene and from a paddock in Cranbourne just out of Melbourne and under US international, Anne Kursinski, Eros became one of the most successful showjumpers in the world and this is his tribute.

Of course, if you look at the pedigree of every Thoroughbred racehorse, you can find breeding that might suggest potential as a sport horse. And there is plenty of Thoroughbred in the pedigree of the modern jumper and even dressage horse. Eros, foaled in 1986, who was known in his brief association with a racing life as Cecil, was by Family Ties (USA) out of a Mambrino mare. Family Ties is the sire of eventers, Bonza Puzzle (Matt Ryan), Brady Bunch (Boyd Martin) and Coastal Ties (William Fox-Pitt). Showjumpers, Liaisons (Vicki Roycroft) and Henry Higgs (Greg Smith) were also by Family Ties that was by Sir Ivor, the sire of Sir Tristram out of a Northern Dancer mare. On the sire line of Eros’ dam Tudor Success, we find the influential Djebel (Fr), that can be found in the pedigree of eventer JJ Babu (Bruce Davidson) and the dressage stallion Bolero, sire of Beauvalais and grandsire on the sire line of Brentina and Bonaparte. Eros, however, was a far superior jumper to those mentioned and nowhere as good a mover as the aforementioned dressage horses, but Eros ended up in the right places and got the right chances.

“I bought him from a contact I had in Cranbourne,” says well-known Melbourne trainer and coach, Michelle Strapp. “I bought a lot of off the track Thoroughbreds from him and he got to know what I liked. Adam Wootten had been with me for a while then and I was able to put him on the horses when I tried them out. The place was basic, with all the slow horses just out in paddocks. I liked Eros and bought him. He always had an amazing brain to teach and he had lots of spring in his paces. He had barely raced and I remember when we first free-jumped him, he landed on all four feet; but then he went on to be one of the best horses in the world. Adam was at me from the start to buy him.”

“I was the test dummy for Michelle when she bought the horses,” explains Adam “and Eros was quite lively. I rode him around the outside of a big paddock and a herd of horses next door came galloping up to the fence, but he did not alter, it did not faze him at all. I asked Michelle in the car on the way home if I could buy him. He was not sound at the time, but I felt so strongly about him that I was prepared to take the risk. He was lame for the first two months I had him, but he came good and never had another lame day in his life as far as I know. I don’t think he had an official race; he had a few barrier trials and then had a wind operation and did not race after that.”

“I didn’t like Cecil as a name. I really loved the horse and wanted a name that I thought matched his talents. A friend came up with Eros, a Greek God and child of Aphrodite and Ares and depicted as a beautiful winged youth; I just loved the name. The first time I ever jumped him was with Joe Fargis after a clinic he gave at the VEC (Victorian Equestrian Centre). He smashed the first fence in front and the next, he jumped so big in front, he smashed it behind. I think I’ve got a dud, I said. No, Joe said, come again. He gave the next jump about four feet and Joe said, put him away, you’ve got a beauty. He was just such a natural jumper and it caused a bit of trouble at a Rod Brown clinic later on, as he would just not trot over a rail on the ground; he would jump it every time. Even Rod could not get him to trot over it. He was jumping very well here and I sent a letter to Joe Fargis and George Morris stating that I would like to bring Eros to the US and George replied first. He got in touch with Vicki Roycroft about me and the horse and she gave us both a good recommendation. At George’s I had lessons with Ray Texel first and then after a clinic George was giving at Hunterdon, he gave me a lesson. He told the whole clinic to stay saying; I hear this is a pretty good horse! He jumped super.

“George asked me, what do we do if someone wants to buy him? At that time I said he was not for sale, but after a year the money ran out. A lot of big-name riders came to try him, Mark Leone, George Lindeman and Beezie Madden to name just three, but for various reasons, they did not buy him. Anne came back from Europe, tried him, got a syndicate together and bought him. Anne did a great job with Eros, she suited him so well and they became an amazing and successful partnership. I loved having Eros and being part of his life. He ruined my life in a way, as try as I might, I could never find another as good.”

“I was based at Hunterdon at that time,” remembers Kursinski, “and Eros was actually stabled in the lower barn where my horses were at the time, but I really hadn’t seen him. I had been away at the Barcelona Olympics and in Europe and had not seen the little (16.1hh) Thoroughbred. It was Thanksgiving Eve 1993 when I went to the indoor to see George to wish him Happy Thanksgiving and to tell him I would be away for a few days and Adam was having a lesson on Eros. Who’s that? That’s Eros, George said, you should try him. So a few days later I rode him and I thought; my God, I’ve got to have this horse, I think he can go to the Olympics. I quickly got the Eros Group syndicate together and bought him. The interesting thing about all that is that about seven other famous riders had tried him and for one reason or another they passed on him. It was as if we were really meant to be.

“We started out showing as a young horse in Florida and in 1994 George wanted him to do the first WEG US Team selection trial which he won. We never intended to go on with that, it was just an exercise. He was just so special, so light and like a feather to ride. He always required a tactful ride, as he was so sensitive and a little bit hot like a Thoroughbred, but I loved that because I grew up on Thoroughbreds, so he suited me beautifully.

“He had to improve his flatwork and do some more dressage that he never really cared for, but he did it and in the end he was very nice to ride. He was just so light, light, light and for me more than anything it was a matter of not interfering and getting in his way, because he was just so smart and keen. Occasionally he could have a fence down, but not very often. He was a very careful horse and naturally very fast. A lot of people tried to buy him, but George and the syndicate were keen for him to go with me to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. George was sitting with Ludger Beerbaum and Franke Sloothaak at a show in Europe and they said to him; how does she ride him? I rode him on quite a loose rein and he just loved galloping and jumping. All that was needed to regulate him was a soft cluck or a whoa, everything was so delicate.

“He won some Grand Prixs on the way up getting ready for Atlanta and he was by far the best performed horse in our Olympic Trials. Atlanta was exciting and it was great to win the Team Silver Medal. It was interesting, as the only thing that worried him was anything overhead, like an aeroplane or a helicopter. The grandstands we so high, close and steep at Atlanta and all that made him a little hotter. After that, I used earplugs and a fly bonnet and that was very helpful.

“We went to the WEG in Rome in 1998 and we were one of the favourites going in, but he got a little bout of colic and did not perform as well as we had hoped. However two weeks later, against many of the same horses, we went to Monterrey in Mexico and won the US$450,000 Pulsar Crown Grand Prix, the richest Grand Prix in the world at that time. He was just amazing.

“I always felt I could jump anything, do anything with him. He was light and careful and fast, a real modern showjumper. He would do well today with the light rails and the more sophisticated courses. He had this lovely big stride and could also shorten very well. He was just such an athlete and so intelligent and was never afraid of anything. We were so well connected and I would swear that he could read my mind. To have him from a young horse until he was 33 is such a rare privilege and I was so thankful to have him when he got older. I jumped him until he was in his early twenties and it was a case of when to stop and when not to stop. He had beautiful conformation and was so clean legged and was this light little Thoroughbred and people in his later years, when they came to my farm, would want to see Eros; he had such a following. It was a testament to his conformation and management that he did as much as he did for as long as he did and stayed as sound as he did. He had such a big heart and a desire to be great.

“At home in retirement he was in the main barn and had the biggest stall and every day I was there, I would go and see him. He was turned out every day. If he wanted to stay out longer, he stayed out longer, if he wanted to come in, he came in. He would get lightly ridden and taken for trail rides around the 130 acres here and he always seemed to like it. One day my partner Carol Hoffman, who rode him often in his later years, got on him at one end of the barn and Eros just walked to his stall and stopped. It was his way of saying, that’s it and it was the last time he was ridden. Eros always got to do whatever he wanted. He always wore a red ribbon in his tail and he could test some of the less experienced grooms with his ears flat back if they had to look after him. He never really did any harm and was not at all a mean horse, but he did have a certain arrogance, the arrogance of a top athlete. We never got after him, because he really was that great.

“To have him in my life for so long was amazing and I can’t tell you the connection we had. I had been to the Olympics, so I knew what was needed, but to believe in Eros from that first ride and make the whole journey together was something special indeed. The fact too that all those good riders passed him over. He was just a remarkable little horse. He could do anything. Inside, he went to the World Cup Finals in 1997 (Gothenburg 5th) outside, big crowd, whatever, he just loved to jump; it was like you were flying. He was the last great Thoroughbred Grand Prix horse, you just don’t see them anymore.

“Eros had an official retirement ceremony at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida in 2007 and died on the 13th June 2019 after a bout of colic. We cremated him and I have a box with some of his ashes that I will scatter over my Grand Prix field. I will never forget the first day I saw him at Hunterdon with Adam, just flying over the jumps. You can’t train that, they are born with it.”

EROS. Some performances:
• 1994 American Gold Cup
• 1996 Team Silver Atlanta Olympics
• 1998 Monterrey Mexico Pulsar Crown Grand Prix.
• Nations Cup victories, Rome and St Gallen (Switzerland)
• Eros won two legs of the Pulsar Grand Slam (now Rolex Grand Slam) and was second in the final leg at Aachen

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