Winning more than ribbons at Racing Victoria's Off The Track Carnival

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Racing Victoria’s second annual Off The Track Carnival took place over the weekend, with 500 retired racehorses descending on Boneo Park for three days of showing, dressage, and showjumping.

Group 1 heros Without A Fight (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), Communist (Russian Revolution), Lion’s Roar (NZ) (Contributer {NZ}), and Eduardo (Host {Chi}) were amongst the competitors fighting it out for $260,000 in prize money.

Winners were crowned all weekend across 23 championships, but the wins for many of the competitors were not just demonstrated in test scores and ribbons. Taking your retired Thoroughbred to such a stage and experiencing the relationship stand up to the test of competition is the ultimate victory in itself.

Communist proving his haters wrong

G1 Randwick Guineas winner Communist broke new ground as his sire’s first Group 1 winner and the 2026 Carnival was his first stay-away competition with owner and rider Sophie Johnson, racing manager for Michael Freedman.

“It’s been fantastic,” Johnson said. “It was my first experience bringing him down and everyone has been so accommodating. It’s such a relaxed environment. I think we are all on the same wavelength, we all are working with Thoroughbreds and there is no judgment from anyone.

“It's been a really, really nice weekend, very well organised and everyone's super helpful. I've had the best time, and I'll definitely be coming back next year.”

Communist finished up his racing career in early 2025, but the Michael Freedman trainee had long been on Johnson’s radar to come home with her.

“I always had a soft spot for him,” she said. “He is quite a quirky character. His Group 1 win was very sentimental for me, because it was the first Group 1 win I was involved in with Michael and I had a big part of his care. He had been at the Hawkesbury stables, which I was running at the time.”

When it came to retiring Communist, Johnson couldn’t see him go anywhere else.

“Because he was so quirky, I just didn't want him to go into the wrong hands, and I just said I would take him,” she said. “Nobody knew what he would be capable of. Everyone questioned me and said, ‘why are you taking him? He's nuts’, but I just said, ‘look, even if I can't ride him, I just want him to have a nice home. He's done what he needed to do, and that's it. I just don't want him to go in the wrong hands’.”

After 10 days of ownership, Johnson gave Communist his first ride, and the pair haven’t looked back. Two years in a row, they have participated in the Tour D’Horse fundraising ride as ambassadors of the Freedman stable.

“In the first year, he took part when he was just six weeks off the track and he just went on from there,” Johnson said. Injury ruled Communist out of the 2025 Equimillion event, but since January, the partnership have been working hard to be ready for the Carnival.

“He has not put a foot wrong and he's tried his heart out for me,” Johnson said. “He’s proved all his haters wrong!”

Participating on all three days of the Carnival, Johnson and Communist recorded their top result in the MyRacehorse Rising Star 80cm Combined Training Championship - where combinations do a dressage test and a showjumping round - on Saturday, finishing seventh in a field of 18. The real victories, however, are in the partnership between horse and rider.

“He's been amazing, and I couldn't have asked any more of him,” Johnson said. “He was not so fun on the track - at one Christmas party, one of our trackwork riders won the award for most falls in one day, and all five of the falls were off him. When he was finished racing, he made sure everyone knew he was finished, but he has just been fantastic since. I couldn’t be happier with him.

“He has nice paces for dressage, but he still has a lot to learn. He is very brave when jumping, and he just tries really, really hard.”

A real sense of community

Sometimes, the results on paper don’t quite reflect the performance, and that certainly was the case for veterinarian and off the track enthusiast Lauren Bryde, who brought Last Offshore (Dalakhani {Ire}) and Negotiations (I Am Invincible) to the Carnival. Bryde attended in 2025 with Last Offshore, nicknamed ‘Dala’, and was keen to come back.

“On paper, it doesn't look as good as it felt, but that's a key part of why we go to the Off The Track Carnival,” she said. “There were a lot of high points that don’t show up on a scoresheet.”

A highlight for Bryde was the event’s atmosphere and the sense of community amongst competitors.

“On Saturday night, they had a riders’ party, and a lot of people there were saying, ‘we don't ever see this at events’,” she said. “Riders don't just come together. But across all the people I spoke to, we had the same feeling - these off the track events are so good because everyone understands what a Thoroughbred can be like.

“Everyone's dealt with the same thing, everyone's had one that's been fresh off the track that loses its mind a little bit and gets confused. There’s so much understanding from everyone, and it develops great comradery around the riders. Everyone has had similar journeys and that understanding vibe is why we want to be here.”

Last Offshore did not impress on the track - running last in his single trial - but in two and a half years with Bryde, he has shown much more of an aptitude for sporting, showjumping, and (his favourite) eventing. The pair have knocked off a number of hunter trials and events this year, and stepped up to new heights for the Carnival.

“His weekend was super, even though the paper doesn't reflect it,” Bryde said. “We finished in the top 10 in the combined training with our best dressage test ever. We had our first, or one of our very first, clear showjumping rounds to finish that off. It was also a big win stepping up a height in the 75cm showjumping.”

The pair finished 10th in a class of 37 combinations in the CT1 Combined Training 60cm Championship - a class where Eduardo finished fifth with owner Rachel Fiala. In the CT2 Championship, G1 Randwick Guineas winner Lion's Roar claimed third place with TTR's own Vicky Leonard.

Negotiations - known at home as ‘Dumpling’ - was a little more successful on the track. A half-brother to G2 Roman Consul Stakes winner Hidden Motive (Capitalist) out of Group 1-winning mare Secret Agenda (Not A Single Doubt), he was a $750,000 yearling purchase who won four races and over $160,000 for Ciaron Maher.

What matters now for Negotiations is how he handles off the track life, and Bryde said that he proved this weekend that he has really embraced his new career.

“Dumpling retired at the end of May, this was his first show and he did wonderfully even though, again, results on paper don't reflect the big wins we had,” she said.

“He came and was happy in the box all weekend, he tried super hard, and after every class, he walked home on a loose rein. I couldn’t be more happy with him, and he’s doing a good job of filling in the ‘permanent resident’ application.”

A bit of healthy competition

One of the Carnival’s most anticipated events was the MRC Foundation Celebrity Challenge on Saturday, where three teams - trainers, jockeys, and equestrian riders - fought it out over two rounds of showjumping. Jamie Melham, Celine Gaudray, and Daniel Stackhouse made up the jockey team, versus trainers Lucy Yeomans, Charlotte Littlefield, and Matt Laurie, with Steven Hill, Louise Abey, and Australian Olympian Amanda Ross made up the equestrian team.

Melham rode Rich Rupee (Manhattan Rain) in the contest, and was pleased to see the public and the competitors really embracing the whole Carnival.

“This year, the crowd was insane, it was triple the size of last year!,” she said. “The numbers (at the Carnival) are insane. The entries were sold out in an hour. It’s amazing what they are doing, giving these horses another life after racing, and it’s just very well publicised so everyone can see how good they are going. This year was incredible.”

Rich Rupee, a horse Melham knew from riding in South Australia, had been gifted by Melham to Charlotte Warren, the daughter of trainer Jason Warren, last year to compete and she enjoyed borrowing the 15-year-old for the event.

Charlotte Littlefield - who had runners on Saturday, then trained a double at Sale on Sunday with Mister Whiskers (St Mark’s Basilica {Fr}) and Miss Castelvecchio (Castelvecchio) - was aboard Princess Keikilani, a 14-year-old unraced daughter of Undoubtedly, for the Celebrity Challenge.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” she said. “I had a very busy morning getting my runners ready before I got here, so I didn’t have a lot of time to think about it, but as I was coming into fence one, I felt my legs go. Fortunately I was on a very good horse and she had my back, but it obviously meant a lot to me as I was very nervous.”

Princess Keikilani competes in 2* eventing, and had been lent to Littlefield for the competition by her owners Belinda and Kylah Brewer.

“She’s just a push-button ride, it made my job so easy out there,” Littlefield said. “I actually had a lot of fun out there.”

Also partaking in the fun over the weekend was 2023 G1 Melbourne Cup winner Without A Fight, who finished in the top six in both dressage tests on Friday. Ridden by Cassia Montgomery, the 10-year-old’s scores led him to finish fourth in the D1A Preliminary Dressage Championship.

Another partnership thriving was that of Elisha Hassan and 2020 Listed Cranbourne Cup winner Future Score (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}), who took out the Fashions On The Field competition on Sunday with an outfit inspired by Derby Day. Trained by Matt Cumani, Future Score won six times and placed in the G2 Adelaide Cup and the G2 Sandown Classic.

“Future Score and I have been a partnership for seven or eight years now,” Hassan said. “I looked after him when he was a racehorse and rode him in trackwork. I have had him off the track for three years now and we are trying our best in the showing and dressage sphere.”

While parts of the carnival had been overwhelming for the pair, Hassan said that it had also been a great experience - all the moreso for sharing it with a horse so special to her.

“He’s my best friend,” she said. “I probably wouldn’t still be in Australia if it wasn’t for him. He’s just the best character - he’s just so laughable. I wouldn’t change him for the world, he’s the best.”