Ant & Dec’s regret over buying ‘awful’ £35K racehorse with Simon Cowell

Ant and Dec have joked about the time they invested in a racehorse with Simon Cowell – worth a whopping £35,000.

The presenting duo laughed that they were left questioning their decision in 2013 after the animal proved “dreadfully slow”.

Appearing on an online chat to promote their new career memoir, Once Upon A Tyne, Ant and Dec recalled that Simon had been just as stumped after racking up considerable stable fees.

Dec told: “It was awful, it was a dreadfully slow horse.

“It wasn’t a racehorse it was just a horse, ‘cos it didn’t race.

“Every time we got to the BGT studio Simon would say, ‘I keep paying stable fees on this horse, but I’ve never seen it run’.”

They added that Simon had wanted to name the animal after himself, before they all settled on It’s A Yes From Me.

“I think it got rehomed,” Dec added.

Ant and Dec recently made their return to telly screens for the Britain’s Got Talent semi-finals.

And while Simon usually heads up judging on the show, he’s had to sit out his duties as he heals up following a nasty accident.

The music mogul suffered a back broken in three places after a crash on his electric bike in Malibu.

Simon was rushed into hospital, where he received an emergency procedure.

He’s now on the road to recovery, and even rumoured to be eyeing up a UK TV return for October’s BGT live finals.

But for Ant and Dec, it’s not the same without their pal.

Admitting they’re missing him, they posed around a table backstage, with their snacks, and a framed snap of Simon.

“Missing you @simoncowell,” the lads wrote, “but we always have you near in our backstage den @BGT tonight at 8pm.”

The boys recently told that they were on the verge of quitting the show after two “tricky” series.

But they flew out to LA for talks with Simon, who managed to smooth everything over and keep them onboard.

The pair write in their book: “The audition days had been long, which in itself we don’t mind, but after filming interviews and interacting with every single act, as well as making jokes, giving reactions and everything else we always do, we found that when the show went out on TV, we hardly seemed to feature in it at all.

“We began to feel we were wasting our time doing the auditions because all the work we were doing was ending up on the cutting room floor.”

But Simon vowed to change that, and managed to keep the boys for the show.