Greatwood's annual charity raceday at Newbury Racecourse raises over £70,000

Written by Sasha Thorbek-Hooper.

(Photo from Channel 4 Racing)Sasha Thorbek-Hooper works at Greatwood and also at Newbury Racecourse.  On Saturday last she was up early for the charity's big day at the races...and tells the story of the day.

The Greatwood Charity for retired racehorses at Clench Common was delighted to open its doors to Channel 4's cameras on Saturday (February 28) when part of The Morning Line programme came live from the charity's headquarters ahead of our main fundraising event of the year at Newbury Racecourse.

Ex-jockey now turned Channel 4 Racing television presenter, Mick Fitzgerald interviewed Greatwood's co-founder Helen Yeadon about the charity's history.  He then moved into the classroom to speak to some of the students that attend Greatwood's educational programmes for disadvantaged children and young adults with special educational needs.

One of the Greatwood horses featured on The Morning Line programme: Seek The Faith - an American bred horse who ran 49 times with seven wins and 13 places. He was taken in because his owner could no longer afford to keep him. "He is a nice big sort of horse, he had been on his own prior to his arrival and he really enjoys the company of the other horses."

Later on in the Channel 4 programme the students were shown grooming some of the horses they work with, before finishing off the live broadcast by interviewing me about some of our stable stars and my role as fundraiser.

Despite the obvious challenge of broadcasting with horses and children (what do they say about working with one or the other, let alone both?!), the
broadcast was seamless and the media exposure has been enormous for the charity.

And there at Newbury was Mick Fitzgerald doing his day-time jobCollecting from the puntersAfter the programme finished, the Greatwood team rapidly moved base to Newbury Racecourse for the charity raceday.

Now in its 8th year and a firm fixture in the racing diary, the card included six races all sponsored as 'Supporting Greatwood' by betfair, betway, Ladbrokes, Moore of Devizes Ltd and BetVictor.  The feature race was The StanJames.com Supporting Greatwood Gold Cup Handicap Steeple Chase.  

The raceday included a lunch attended by 300 prominent guests from the world of horse racing, followed by a main auction and a silent auction.

The raceday was a resounding success raising in excess of £72,000 - that's £10,000 more than last year's Newbury Raceday, Huge thanks to everybody involved for making the day so successful.

It rained a bit and it blew very cold, the racing was first class and the fundraising was successful.  What better way to end February!

Waiting for the next winner: Newbury's presentation podium

Neil Mulholland chats to Barry Geraghty

TM writes: If you want a tip for the Cheltenham Festival check out the jump season's emerging  colaboration between trainer Neil Mulholland and jockey Barry Geraghty.  The Mulholland trained Leave it Be was brought home by Geraghty to win the day's opening race - the Betfair Supporting Greatwood Veterans' Handicap Hurdle.  The Irish bred eight-year-old gelding was 8-1 with the course bookies. After the race Mulholland said he had booked Barry Geraghty for two of his Cheltenham Festival runners. Geraghty will ride The Young Master in the RSA Chase and The Druids Nephew in the three-mile handicap chase on the opening day of the Festival.

Barry Geraghty in the silks of Leave It Be's owners - The Hanham Boys Racing Club

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