British Breeder Magazine May 2020

NEWS
Team Eventing Wins Gold As Equestrian Relief
Raises £250,000 For The NHS Covid-19 Appeal
Equestrian Relief culminated in an elaborate finale on Monday
night as our teams participated in a round of Dark Horse, where
our teams shared their hidden talent. They went all out to impress
the celebrity judges, TV presenter and Pop Idol judge Nicky
Chapman and opera singer Russell Watson. This was combined
with the public vote and the teams pulled out all the stops to win the
final challenge and take the crown.
Going into the final in the lead, Team Eventing unleashed their
secret weapon. A comical parody of Netfilx’s latest smash hit ‘The
Tiger King’ performed by Ben Hobday. This put him at the top of the
challenge leaderboard and sealed the overall win for the team. An
outstanding rap performance by Team Polo’s Jack Richardson and
Tom Morley put them just behind Ben boosting Team Polo into a
runner up spot in the final rankings.
The amazing commitment and effort from all the riders and
presenters, kind donations by our sponsors and generosity of those
who pledged auction prizes has resulted in Equestrian Relief
smashing its initial target. Equestrian Relief and the team at
Bolesworth are thrilled to be handing over £250,000 to the NHS
Charities Together Covid-19 Urgent Appeal. Now is time that the
NHS really need these vital funds.
Top lot in the charity auction was membership of a Nick Bradley
Racing syndicate which raised £7,501. Zara Tindall’s painting from
the Horse Drawn challenge raised £5,700. Frankie Dettori’s signed
breeches raised £4,9000 and the round of golf with Sir AP McCoy
and Oli Bell earned £3,800. Collectively the charity auction
added £165,440 to the overall amount raised. Said Nina Barbour,
Bolesworth Managing Director: “It has been an overwhelming
fortnight – and we are delighted to be in a position to be donating
over quarter of a millions pounds to the NHS Covid-19 Crisis Fund.
I would just like to extend a massive thank you to everyone from the
Equestrian World who has supported this fantastic cause in every
way, and helped us achieve this great result.” Ellie Orton, CEO or
NHS Charities Together said “We are massively grateful and
inspired by all of the sports people, who are our idols, that are
giving back and saying thank you. To hear the NHS are their
heroes is fantastic and although the donations are important, as
they’ll make a massive difference, it’s the morale and emotions that
are involved which mean so much to all of our teams”.
Zara Tindall, Team Captain for the Eventers said “It was a honour
to be asked to get involved with Equestrian Relief, such an amazing
group of people to be able to come together to try and support
our NHS for the unbelievable job they are doing to fight this war
against corona and hoping that the money raised will help in the
areas that it is really needed. She added “Obviously the highlight is
to take overall team Gold. What an incredibly talented and game
spirited Eventing team we had and the most valuable player has
to be Ros with her double gold! A huge thank you to all those who
donated and please keep supporting our NHS through this difficult
time. Stay safe everyone.”
Mark Tomlinson, Team Captain for the Polo riders said “I’m very
proud of the Polo Teams performance and our silver medal, which
is impressive as we were late comers to the competition. The
highlights for me have to be Jack and Tom’s rap, which was
outstanding, and the fact that as a collective the equestrian world
came together to raise over a quarter of a million pounds for the
Covid-19 Appeal.”
Sir AP McCoy of Team Racing said “It was a pleasure to be
involved and I’m really proud of everyone from the equestrian
world for helping to raise a great sum of money for a cause that
has touched everyone in recent times.” It is still possible to make a
donation by visiting www.equestrianrelief.com, where you can see
the full results and revisit all the action.
4 | BRITISH BREEDER