TEAM EVENTING WINS GOLD AS EQUESTRIAN RELIEF RAISES £250,000 FOR THE NHS COVID-19 APPEAL
Wednesday 15 April 2020
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. Click here
to watch the finale.
The amazing commitment and effort from our 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. With
the peak of the crisis still not upon us and further Nightingale Hospitals opening 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 to revisit all of the action.
