From Stuff.co.nz (dated 21 July 2010)

Oakura eventing rider Heelan Tompkins is on the hunt for an Olympic-quality horse.

The dual Olympian has sold her internationally ranked eventing horse Sugoi to an Australian buyer. The price and owners can not be revealed as Tompkins has signed a confidentiality agreement.

"They [new owners] want to keep it private so the person that has bought him and the young rider can get to know him without being under the spotlight."

The horse, which Tompkins rode at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, left New Zealand for Sydney last weekend.

Tompkins said while tough, she was confident the decision to sell was the right one. "When push came to shove, it was the right thing to do."

Sugoi is rising 14 years old, making him in the twilight of his career, and has had a number of niggling injuries in his lastest campaign. While minor, the injuries had ruled him out of representing New Zealand at the World Equestrian Games at Kentucky next month.

"It's doing the right thing from a business point of view because there's other people [owners] involved other than myself," said Tompkins, adding now she had to try to find a suitable replacement.

She has given herself 18 months to find one capable of getting her to her third Olympic Games, in London in 2012.

"I've got a bit of time up my sleeve and I've got a good group of people helping me, so fingers crossed I find a suitable horse to take his place."

With Sugoi sold, it leaves Major Difference as the best performed advanced horse in the Tompkins stable.

Major Difference has stepped up the ranks since joining Tompkins' stable. The national champion had patchy form with other riders earlier in his career.

"He's definitely been the best New Zealand-based horse over the last 12 months in this country and if he continues to improve on those performances and get better marks in dressage then he could well be a prospect for London," Tompkins said

"But he's got a bit to do yet to earn a spot in the team."

Tompkins said Major Difference would fill an important gap in her stable between now and the Olympics – "Because you do have to be consistently competing up to advanced level to keep up to scratch."

Sugoi was owned by a syndicate that included Tompkins and Melva Yarrow, of Manaia, wife of the late Noel Yarrow, after being bought as a promising eventer from his previous owner in Canterbury.

Tompkins said despite the injury niggles, Sugoi, who underwent a thorough veterinary test before the sale was confirmed, remained a serious contender for the London Olympics.

"He's probably been the best horse I've had in all three phases of competition, but as a combination we haven't really teamed up as well as I first hoped we would.

"So it's been a bit disappointing knowing what we're both capable of and not quite producing the goods."

Sugoi is the second advanced class eventing horse from Taranaki to be sold overseas in the past year.

Late last year, Athens Olympian, Matthew Grayling, of Okato, sold the talented youngster Parklane Hawk to leading English rider William Fox-Pitt for big money.

Meanwhile, Tompkins recently welcomed home her Athens Olympic mount Glengarrick to continue a life of retirement.

Glengarrick will turn 25 on August 1 and in recent years has been a gymkhana mount for Tompkins' cousin in the Hawke's Bay.

"He's just going to spend a bit of time around the farm and chill out and no doubt be doted upon by different kids around the block."