There may be very few pure Thoroughbreds competing at the Olympics this year, but that doesn’t mean the breed won’t play a role in the Paris Games, which kick off with the opening ceremony on Friday. Several horses competing in eventing, for which competition begins Saturday, have Thoroughbred relatives – including two horses on the powerhouse German team who have Thoroughbred broodmare sires. Thoroughbreds have long been prized in the sport of eventing – the equestrian “triathlon” comprised of dressage, cross-country, and stadium jumping – because of their bravery and stamina. However, as the sport evolved, with more emphasis placed on the dressage phase and the stamina tests on cross-country day shortened, many international jurisdictions trended toward other breeds for their extravagant movement and quieter temperaments. Thoroughbreds have long been utilized to refine this warmblood breeding – and indeed, eventers often discuss a horse’s “percentage of blood,” meaning their amount of Thoroughbred influence, as a factor in creating a solid all-around horse. “Removing the dressage coefficient several years ago was a total game-changer in eventing — clear, fast jumping rounds are now absolutely necessary to win,” eventer and breeder Katie Ruppel told the Retired Racehorse Project in discussing eventing’s history. “That has sparked the renaissance of Thoroughbred blood in a sport that was drifting further and further away from its roots. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Many of this year’s Olympic eventing hopefuls have Thoroughbred blood deep in their family trees, but two extremely prominent contenders with Thoroughbred blood very close in their pedigrees are FischerChipmunk FRH, ridden by Michael Jung, and Carjatan S, ridden by Christoph Wahler, both on the German eventing team. Both have half-Thoroughbred dams, via Thoroughbred broodmare sires. Germany is considered one of the favorites to medal in eventing in both the team and individual competitions. Germany won team gold medals in 2008 and 2012, and team silver in 2016. Jung was a member of the 2012 and 2016 medal-winning squads, and won individual gold in both those years. Wahler, along with Jung, helped Germany to team gold at the 2022 world eventing championship. The third rider expected to compete for Germany is reigning Olympic individual gold medalist Julia Krajewski, with Nickel 21. FischerChipmunk FRH, a prior winner of the Kentucky five-star event, is a 16-year-old Hanoverian gelding. His broodmare sire is the Thoroughbred stallion Heraldik, from the Nearco line, who was foaled in the Czech Republic in 1982 but eventually imported to Germany. The unraced stallion became one of the most respected sport horse sires of all time; his top performers included Jung’s gold medalist La Biosthetique Sam FBW. Carjatan S is a 15-year-old Holsteiner gelding. His Thoroughbred broodmare sire is Galant Vert. He was foaled in 1980 in France and was a Group 3 winner in his native country, as well as coming to the United States to be Grade 1-placed on the turf in California. On the Canadian Olympic eventing team, the half-Thoroughbred mare Hot Bobo will compete with rider Karl Slezak, a member of the 2023 Pan American Games gold medal-winning team. The 11-year-old mare is out of unraced Taneys Leader, foaled in Ireland in 1999. She is by Supreme Leader, a multiple Group 3 winner in England who also was third in the English 2000 Guineas. The only pure Thoroughbred in the prospects for Paris is the traveling reserve for Australia, Bold Venture, who will step in with rider Shenae Lowings if there is a problem with one of the three team members. Australian-born Bold Venture, by Devaraja, was winless in three starts before being sold for a second career. Lowings discovered him on Facebook and purchased him for just $1,000. “I knew he had the ability, but he was just very tricky mentally,” Lowings told Victoria Racing Club of the now-14-year-old gelding. “From the very beginning he was a horse that was hard to get to know and it was difficult to win his trust. I believed that he had something very special there, but I was unsure if I was ever going to be able to coax it out of him. He was always a great jumping horse and, like most Thoroughbreds, he’s great on cross-country, so I knew I had those boxes ticked. But it was a question of how good I could I get him in the dressage phase.” Two members of the U.S. Olympic eventing squad, Will Coleman and Boyd Martin, are well known for competing off-the-track Thoroughbreds in the upper levels. Coleman’s mount for Paris, the Holsteiner gelding Diabolo, has Heraldik in his pedigree, as the broodmare sire of his second dam. ◗ Among other rooting interests for the Thoroughbred industry in the Paris Games, international owner and breeder Bonne Chance Farm has an entirely separate division focused on sport horses, and Ilex will be its colorbearer in Olympic show jumping for the U.S. team. Bonne Chance evolved as an offshoot of South America’s Stud RDI, founded by longtime friends Gilberto Sayão da Silva and Paulo Fernando de Oliveira. After forays into the market in France, da Silva purchased a Kentucky property in 2015. The Bonne Chance sporthorse division was launched in 2017. Ilex, an 11-year-old KWPN gelding, began his career with Brazilian rider Fabio Leivas da Costa before coming to the United States to partner with McLean Ward, who now co-owns him with Bonne Chance. The show jumping competition begins on Aug. 1. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.