Tarawera

Tarawera eyeing the hurdle.

Just as with Pentiffic in 2009, jumps racing needed another new face in 2010.

Four-year-old, Tarawera began racing in a 2900m restricted hurdle at Oakbank, and finished the year as topweight in the 4530m Grand National Steeplechase with 69kg on his back.

Nine jumps races in his first season, he had just turned five when carrying his extraordinary weight on a Heavy10 track and falling.

The green screen came out, but the horse had narrowly escaped fatal injuries.

Tarawera falls headfirst during the running of the Grand National Steepelchase of 2009. Just five-years-old, this first-season jumps horse was carrying topweight of 69kg on the Heavy 10 track, and fell heavily. Stewards reported that he sustained “slight blood in both nostrils however in the opinion of the veterinary surgeon this was caused by trauma.”

There he is! The shaken Tarawera then tried to jump the wing of the next jump, and largely dis-appeared until a photographer found him spreadeagled on the ground behind the wing of a jump.