SANDOWN PARK GIVES A HEROES WELCOME
10/02/2010
Sandown Park Racecourse will play host to an exclusive equestrian Heroes Cup Parade on Friday 19 February, as part of The Royal Artillery Gold Cup Day supporting Help for Heroes. The event has been inspired by the ‘Battle Back’ scheme and will precede to next years inaugural ‘2011 Heroes Cup’ horse race. Battle Back is Tri-Service initiative that uses Adventurous Training to aid and support the rehabilitation of injured service personnel.
Next years race will be open not just to injured military riders but to those non-riders who can reach the requisite standard through training, and in doing so celebrate their success in overcoming adversity. They will achieve this by ‘battling back’ to equestrian fitness and accomplishing something that many would not attempt even if fully fit. Each of the riders will start or have already started training for one of the toughest challenges in their rehabilitation in preparing for this exciting race. Trainers Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls as well as The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery have each offered support to assist in the training of the riders through 2010.
This year’s ‘Heroes Parade’, which launches the 2011 Heroes Cup will take place in the Parade Ring at 13.45 prior to the first race and aims to encourage other injured personnel to come forward for the 2011 race. To date soldiers from The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, The Royal Artillery, and The Royal Gurkha Rifles have committed to taking part in the race with other regiments showing interest. Each of the soldiers on parade aspires to race in the 2011 Heroes Cup and will parade wearing the racing silks of some of racing’s most famous National Hunt owners and be accompanied by uniformed members of The King’s Troop.
Prior to racing, the men and women of 22 Locating Battery Royal Artillery, who returned from Afghanistan in October, will march through Esher town and provide an opportunity for friends and family to show their appreciation. The Master Gunner St James’s Park, General Sir Timothy Granville-Chapman GBE KCB, accompanied by the Mayor of Elmbridge (Councillor J Vickers), the Regimental Colonel and the Commanding Officer, 32 Regiment Royal Artillery will take the Salute. The parade begins at 10.30am.
Sandown Park is delighted to have developed its longstanding relationship with The Royal Regiment of Artillery and also with one of the UK’s most prominent charities, Help for Heroes. The Help for Heroes work has captured the heart of the nation and in just two years they have raised over £30m to fund some incredible projects for the real heroes. Proceeds for the charity will go towards the opening of Halfway Houses around the country with the first one being built in Colchester in March 2011. These will help rehabilitate badly wounded service personnel in getting themselves back into military and civil life.
The Royal Artillery Gold Cup is one of Sandown Park’s oldest races having been first run at the racecourse in 1863 and only interrupted in its long history by the South African War and the two World Wars – this race continues to keep alive the great tradition of military jumping.
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Contact: Sarah-Jane Muirie
Tel No: 020 7385 8819
