Sir Mark Todd: Olympic Gold medal-winning eventer retires to train racehorses

Sir Mark Todd rode to his sixth Olympic medal at London 2012

Former Olympic champion Sir Mark Todd says he has retired from eventing, aged 63, to focus on training racehorses.

The New Zealander, who lives in Foxhill near Swindon, won Olympic gold medals in Los Angeles and Seoul in 1984 and 1988 respectively, riding on Charisma.

"I can't keep going in the sport of eventing forever, so it had to happen sometime," he told BBC Wiltshire.

"I found I was not as excited as I used to be about going eventing so I thought it was probably time to pull the plug."

A two-time world champion from 1990 and 1998, Todd also won a bronze medal in team eventing at the London 2012 Olympics.

After an eight-year break from the sport, he additionally took the cross-country title at the Badminton horse trial in 2011, riding on NZB Land Vision.

"In some ways it [Tokyo 2020] is only a year away but the more I thought about it, that year seemed longer and longer, and my heart was not really in eventing anymore.

"Earlier this year I had the opportunity to get back in to training racehorses and that's probably fast-forwarded this decision.

"I've been fortunate in a 41-year career that I've had many highlights. Now I [train] 10 racehorses here. I love the sport of racing so it's going to be a challenge to see if I can have some winners over here."