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Former Stewards Cup winner Magical Memory shows off his paces to finish Second in first Novice Dressage test

16th April 2025

Goodwood Racecourse Equine Ambassador, Magical Memory shows off his movements in the dressage arena placing second with rider Sue Scott-Collis. 

  • Horse Racing

  • Magical Memory

  • Goodwood Racecourse

Magical Memory with rider Sue Scott-Collis at their yard in West Sussex. Ph by Toby Adamson

After almost a year away from competing, Magical Memory’s movements in the dressage arena earnt him second place in his first Novice test on Sunday 13 April. Since retiring from horseracing in 2020, the grey gelding has been turning his hooves to a different career and is just as competitive as he was on the track at Goodwood Racecourse.

Based in West Sussex, the 13-year-old has been on permanent loan from owners Kennet Valley Thoroughbreds to dressage rider Sue Scott-Collis since 2022. After a successful first outing of the season with Magical Memory at the Mid Sussex Riding Club competition in Belmoredean, rider Sue said: “It’s been about a year since he’s been out, he didn’t put a foot wrong. There’s been a lot of effort to get him here. I don’t think I let him down today in our first novice test and he certainly didn’t let me down.

“Magic is so likeable. He’s a good ambassador for Goodwood purely because he wants to do it, he wants to please and has a great personality. He loves having a job to do.”

Trained by Charlie Hills during his racing career, Magical Memory most notably won the Coral Stewards Cup at Qatar Goodwood Festival with Frankie Dettori aboard in 2015. Fast forward to 2025 and the pair’s controlled and relaxed dressage shows the adaptability of racehorses once they retire from horseracing.

Sue’s aim for Magical Memory is to now affiliate him and qualify for the RoR Southern Regional Dressage Championships at Blenheim International Horse Trials in September. They are one step closer to that following Sunday’s second place and scoring a successful 68.75%. Sue added: “The horses love working, but you have to prepare them for it because it is so different and something out of their own comfort zone and environment, even physically they are working in such different ways to when they were racing, engaging their backend more and moving in a more elevated way.”

Sue also owns and competes another retired thoroughbred, The Cool Sandpiper (Sandy), and is a big advocate for retraining racehorses. “It’s nice that they come out of horseracing and they can go on to do something else, whether that’s hacking, showing, polo or anything. They have another job to do,” she added. “Sandy I’ve had since he was four and he’s now 21. With flat racing, they finish their racing career at quite a young age, unless they’re super talented, like Magic was. You then have a horse that’s had all the basic training done so you can mould them to suit any equestrian discipline you want, they’re great athletes.”

  • Horse Racing

  • Magical Memory

  • Goodwood Racecourse