Why does my horse's french passport say he died in 2003?

[JC10]

In trying to trace my horse's history, I discovered via his microchip that his country of birth was France and that he was originally registered as a French Trotter with haras-nationaux. However, it states that he died in 2003! I am now wondering what is going on! His passport in the UK is with BSJA and from documents enclosed with his passport when I bought him, I can see that he had a spell at racing before turning to show jumping. I really wanted to track his UK racing history but Weatherbys haven't replied to my query. Do you think the 2003 date is when he was exported to the UK rather than when he died (which he obviously didn't!)? I know that he was bought in the UK as a trotter but quickly sold on and he still has traits from his trotting days which he displays sometimes after jumping a full course so I believe he probably was a french trotter. He is registered a thoroughbred X but now I'm doubting that as well!!

Can anybody shed any light on the date of death for me please? Or how I can get any more information - his name on haras-nationaux is Kiko Balago, his UK passport shows it as Roulette Red but he also has Big Red in brackets which I can only presume was once his UK racing name? Many thanks for anybody's help in this mystery.

 

[be positive]

I cannot help with most of your questions, other than a bit of guesswork, if he is supposedly a French trotter rather than a full tb then he will not have raced under rules in the country which is why Weatherbys will be unable to help you, although they could at least have responded to tell you that, if he raced as a trotter over here that has nothing to do with Weatherbys so you would be best looking into whoever runs trotting races over here, google is your friend.

The guesswork would be that he may have finished racing in France, for whatever reason, and been sent for slaughter/ to a sale with the original passport being returned to haras nationaux as required, but someone decided to give him a chance sold him on and he ended up over here, with a new passport and career, his microchip details will probably be correct but unraveling his history may prove tricky.

There are a few regular posters in here that live in France so they may be more able to help with that part of his history, there is also someone very involved with trotting but I cannot remember their user name, if you do a search you should be able to find them easily enough, you can send them a pm with your questions but you need to post a little more before that facility is available to you.

 

[JC10]

Thank you for the information you've supplied. Hopefully a french poster will reply as I've had to translate the haras-nationaux web pages the best I can so it'd be much easier if somebody actually knew the set up over in France. If he was saved from slaughter, he's certainly proved himself in the field of show jumping as he's been a real superstar over the last few years.