I cannot help it, but recently i have lot of horses on my mind (the fragrance of fresh manure is still hanging around here somewhere)!
So i was thinking - the description of the “tournament mode” stretch goal is a bit too general, but it seems that it would include only Man VS (digital)Man combat?
But no horse riding - whether just horse track race or combat on horses (teams, deathmatch - basically many vs many) or horse duel?
Of course where possible with multiple participants (how many horses are in “Velka Pardubicka” race?) and in single or multiplayer mode (although i remember that the multiplayer was generally dismissed for this game)?!
And maybe the player could have its own stable in which the horse champions would be “garaged” and of course “pimped”(new black horseshoes => speed+5, fresh hay => vitality+4, periodical massages/brushing by the stable maid => attractiveness+10, etc. )!
I still remember the driving mission from Mafia, so maybe something similar could be developed (but hopefully without the need to drive the horses with some special game “reins” controller…)?