Thoroughbreds only?

M

mrussell

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To qualify to race under the rules in the UK, do horses have to come from certain blood-lines?
If so, could someone give a brief outline of the requirements? (or a link, of course.)

tia
 
The French have races for AQPS horses (meaning non-thoroughbred) and such horses are allowed to race here. Many of the very best French jumpers have had AQPS backgrounds like The Fellow, First Gold, Edredon Bleu and Neptune Collonges.

Just to add that the AQPS stud book demands that entrants have at least 87.5% thoroughbred blood, so we're not talking about entirely different breeds being allowed to compete. I'm not sure what rules the general stud book have in place here, or indeed how those rules are translated by the racing authorities which wouldn't necessarily insist on the same degree of purtity.
 
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Just to translate, AQPS means 'Autre Que Pur-Sang' or 'Other than Pureblood' (meaning TB), mrussell. If you Google 'AQPS French horses' you'll find plenty of useful sites, including an entry in the ubiquitous Wikipedia, telling more than you ever wanted to know about them!
 
Rendons Grace who defeated Edward O'Grady's Jumbo Rio yesterday as an AQPS as is Willie Mullins mare Quevega amongst others.

There's far more than people realise particularly with the French-breds - each year is represented by a letter too, hence you'll see the whole field in a particular race begin with the letter "Q".
 
Is AQPS similar to selle francais (or the same thing) as my friends ex-racer is part selle francais he came from France, but raced here.
 
Selle Francais would be a version of AQPS - those I mentioned above are all Selle Francais horses Ali.

An AQPS horse is anything that's not 100% TB, for example Quevega's sire Robin Des Champs is a TB but her dam Vega IV is a Selle Francais I believe so she's an AQPS horse :)
 
Quite a few Irish NH horses used to be non-thoroughbred. You knew them by the suffix "VI". Tubs VI was a durable jumper who moved beyond hunter chases and won quite a few bread and butter sort of handicaps. There were others, but my memory fails me.
 
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