AS ever, some horses finished the autumn season not fulfilling expectations but hopefully, their owners have considered another career for them.

An opportunity for ex-racehorses and unraced thoroughbreds to show their skills as potential event horses comes up at the end of this month with the first leg of the Stepping Stones to Success league at Wexford Equestrian which, for those who don’t know it, can be checked out tomorrow on the way to Lingstown.

All five legs of the league take place on Wednesdays (March 28th to April 25th) and are open to horses of any age and with any amount of racing and showing experience. However, they can only have a year or less of affiliated eventing or show jumping on their record.

One of the jumping judges during the series will be Lieutenant Colonel Brian MacSweeney who, during the autumn, assisted Emily MacMahon as she schooled and hunted Outlander, one of two Gordon Elliott-trained runners still entered in Friday’s Cheltenham Gold Cup.

The winner of last year’s thoroughbred league, which is supported by the Irish Horse Welfare Trust Thoroughbred Club was the French-bred Sizing Alberta. The 2010 Lord du Sud gelding ran once in a point-to-point and eight times on the track in the colours of the late Ann and Alan Potts.

The good-looking grey was saddled by Colm Murphy to win a maiden hurdle at Roscommon in June 2016.

Sizing Alberta is now owned by Co Meath auctioneer John Bannon who, through injury, missed competing the grey in last year’s league with the ride going to Killinick-based Clare Lambert. John gave the horse a typically quiet introduction to eventing last season and, ahead of the start of the 2018 campaign, the combination were among those who attended cross-country clinics given at Grange Farm, Kilcock on Thursday by world-renowned horse and rider coach Yogi Breisner.