Dear Sir

The activities taking place over this past weekend have given me hope that racing, as an industry, can use joined up thinking to make the lot of those who work in our sport a better place.

An hour after Richard Dunwoody finished his 1,000 mile challenge at Newmarket’s July course, 3 retired stablelads Fred Messer, Sid Jeffcoate and Joe Tate, accompanied by 12 young students from the Northern Racing College and their instructors, manned their collecting buckets at the exits of the July course. Using friendly smiles and numerous polite “thank you sir/madam” they succeeded in persuading Newmarket’s race goers to part with over £3,000 which is now destined to go into Dunwoody’s challenge fund. In those few hours of bucket collecting I saw the refreshing site of those who have given their entire lives to racing standing shoulder to shoulder with those who are just about to embark upon their careers, working together to raise money for the people in racing.

Not content with that, myself and a “gallant” band of 10 runners embarked upon the London 10k run on Sunday, with over £10,000 in Racing Welfare sponsorship riding upon our successful completion of the Capital’s slog. We wore the racing colours of Sir Robert Ogden, Ray Anderson Green, Peter Clay, Andy Stewart, Beckhampton Racing, Michael Pescoed and Paul Roy (all of whom had donated handsomely to have their silks worn by the “athletes”).Our merry band consisted of stable staff, packaging designers, TV racing pundits, solicitors, addiction councillors and PR people. What strikes me the most is that this weekend has seen disparate groups working to support a common goal. A huge amount of praise must be given to those wonderful bucket collectors both young and old, our lasting thanks has to go to the leading owners who permitted their hallowed colours to be sweated in so profusely in London, plaudits must be given to Roger Charlton who encouraged all the owners in his yard to donate to the two runners who represented his Beckhampton yard, and finally I would like to thank all those who gave money to the Dunwoody Challenge and the London 10k. The long list of names on sponsorship forms and the folks who dropped their coins and notes into our collecting buckets comes from across the racing spectrum.

This is joined up thinking, this is where Ben, Brian and all names in between have been brought together by a love for our sport and a feeling that donating some money whether great or small to Racing Welfare is cash re-invested in racing’s greatest asset – it’s people. Thank you all for your support now and hopefully in the future.

Richard Negus – Fundraising and Communications executive – Racing Welfare