In July 2018, when eventer Kendal Lehari brought home the OTTB Remember Gizmo from trainer Bob Tiller’s stable at Woodbine Racetrack to her family’s Reindalyne Farm in Uxbridge, ON, she gave him the unassuming barn name ‘Mitchell’. Later, she discovered the name is derived from Middle English words meaning ‘big’ or ‘large’, which absolutely fit the three-year-old, 17.2-hand chestnut, “who’s got a definite presence,” says Lehari, 32.

“I’ve never had a Thoroughbred like him or seen one like him. He basically looks like a big fancy warmblood. He is the coolest horse I’ve ever had,” she says of the gelding by Giant Gizmo out of Bear Memory, bred in Ontario by Paul Buttigieg.

The duo competed in the 2019 Retired Racehorse Project’s Thoroughbred Makeover, held at the Kentucky Horse Park October 2-5. In this, the Makeover’s fifth year, 673 professional, amateur and junior trainers were accepted to compete for more than $100,000 in prize money in 10 disciplines. Entries are judged on training progress within a 10-month period and how suitable they are for the disciplines in which they’re entered.

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