Team of No Guts No Glory retirees competing in Thoroughbred Makeover

A team of five Thoroughbreds owned by Maryland’s No Guts No Glory Farm will participate in this year’s Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makever Oct. 11-14 in Lexington, Ky.

Gina Robb, who co-owns No Guts No Glory Farm with her husband, John Robb, has a daughter who has been taking riding lessons at Talbot Run Equestrian Center in Mt. Airy, Md. Months ago she partnered with Robin Petrasek, the head trainer at Talbot Run, to provide horses to train up to and compete in the Thoroughbred Makeover.

Four of the horses are retired racehorses and one is a broodmare Robb said is perhaps ready for another career. Under Petrasek’s program, each of the riders have been training their respective horses in preparation for the Kentucky event.

"We decided to kind of gear towards helping juniors learn how to retrain the horses,” Petrasek told the Thoroughbred Daily News. "So it's kind of a teaching and building program so that we can build up their interest in the industry and shine awareness on what it takes and where these horses came from.

Robb earlier this year brought the Talbot Run team to Laurel Park for a tour of the facility and to meet with those who work on the backstretch and the frontside. It was part of an the overall introduction to racing and opportunities for retired racehorses.

The five riders are Petrasek, CC Forgione, Gretchen Wolfe, Chloe Pleune and Gina Robb’s daughter, Angelina Rosenthal. They will ride, respectively, Seany P (dressage and freestyle), Little Bold Bandit (competitive trail), Vampish (broodmare as well as eventing and showjumping), Scintillio (eventing and showjumping) and Belfour (eventing and showjumping). Little Bold Bandit is a half-brother to the top mare Anna’s Bandit, a No Guts No Glory Farm homebred who won multiple stakes and earned $806,000 and is a broodmare at the farm.

"I want these young kids to get into the business,” Robb told the TDN. “We need to find some new-timers and let them see what it's like to do these things. I'm hoping it sparks them.”

Robb, who is a trainer as well as a breeder, also said she appreciates that the RRP team added a broodmare division given that they may no longer be able to produce but are candidates for eventing. She also credited her husband, who has won more than 2,200 races, for retiring horses early, thus making them healthier candidates to move on to second careers.

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