Top-flight horse-racing comes to Fittleworth

Horse racing is a common fixture in the British sporting diary but a very special type of horse racing event happened at Fittleworth Village Hall on the evening of Thursday 27th February.  The hall became, as if by magic, an elaborate flat race course, complete with Tote, steward’s offices and licensed bar, all wonderfully co-ordinated by Nick Rowley from Moonlight Events.

Chris Taylor, one of our Children on the Edge Ambassadors, organised a night to remember with a novel set of horse races to keep the punters entertained.  The packed programme comprised six sponsored races, each having six imaginatively-named horses; a surprise double-jockey relay race, and a grand final.

The chosen jockeys, all sporting ‘full safety equipment’ (amounting to little more than a flimsy cap), mounted their saddles (village hall chairs) and, upon a shrill blast of the steward’s whistle, began frantically to wind-in their wooden steeds using just a short length of broom handle and string.

The jockeys were facing in the same direction as the horses which meant that they didn’t have a clue who’d won, until the steward blew his whistle again.  

As you can imagine, this was a very serious business – as was the betting.  After all, who can resist a small flutter on a fine filly?

After a short gastronomic break, of fish & chips, the final race, the Douglas & Gordon Derby, was won by Anna McMorran on Albert, holding off a stern challenge from a jockey too shy to be mentioned.  Her prize was a huge silver cup (exquisitely crafted from cardboard and tin foil) and a bottle of champagne – which looked surprisingly real.

It proved to be a most enjoyable evening for all those who attended and what’s more, a staggering £1400 was raised for Children on the Edge - almost without the race-goers noticing!

Children on the Edge would like to thank Chris and his team as well as all the race-goers who made this such a huge success.

Thanks also go to Martin and Chris who provided this write-up.

If you have some kind of imaginative plan to raise money for our work,  just get in touch! 

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