Julia Krajewski

Julia Krajewski’s hopes of setting her Olympic record right in Tokyo may have been shattered, but she will be back. Pippa Roome meets her

- Pippa Roome

TWO months ago Julia Krajewski was a potential individual medallist at this summer’s Olympics, as certain of her ticket to Tokyo as any rider. Now, the horse the German should have taken on that journey, Samourai Du Thot, will never event at the top level again. He grazes in the field, sound and happy, but his cruel early retirement has been forced by the loss of an eye.

“He had this infection a while ago, but everything was going fine, I was training him with our eyes set on Tokyo,” says Julia. “Then, it turned worse. His eye was operated on twice, it didn’t work, he became blind. To keep the infection from going to his brain, they had to remove his eye.”

Speaking a week after announcing the retirement of “Sam”, Julia is admirably calm.

“It feels like some sort of error that his career ended so suddenly,” she says. “There are horses eventing with one eye, but he’s 15, he’s always been a nippy, slightly spooky horse. Maybe he could compete at the low levels, but it would feel strange to aim him at two stars.

“He doesn’t have to prove anything to me and I don’t want to risk him getting frightened or having a fall.

“The last feel I have of him across country was winning the four-star long at Strzegom last October. He was super-cool to ride and I don’t want to change that. It was a quick decision.”

Sam’s record is incredible – out of 56 international runs, he was in the top five 40 times and won 18 classes, including the five-star at Luhmühlen in 2017.