Sir Anthony McCoy and Rachael Blackmore, two of the legends of racing in the modern era are set to go head-to-head in the Markel Jockeys Jumping on the evening of Monday 19 December at the London International Horse Show in aid of the Injured Jockeys Fund.
The competition, now in its sixth year, is back by popular demand and will see a team of male jockeys take on their female counterparts against the clock over a course of show jumps, with a larger ‘joker’ fence at the end.
Having lost to the girls last time, McCoy has stacked his team with jockeys boasting over 10,000 winners between them. His line-up features current and former jump champions, Brian Hughes and Harry Skelton as well as two of the flat boys, Jim Crowley, also a former jump jockey and James Doyle, who has apparently been practicing!
Not to be outdone, Rachael is joined by Cheltenham-Festival winning jockey and a stalwart of the Skelton yard, Bridget Andrews; Saffie Osborne, a former gold medallist at pony International Eventing; Joanna Mason, who cut her teeth on the point-to-point circuit, and Hayley Turner, not now far of that magical 1000 winner number.
Watchable live on the BBC red button (Sky channel 981) and on Horse & Country TV and with coaches, Olympic Gold Medallist, Nick Skelton and husband-and-wife icons William and Pippa Funnell, the class is sure to be huge amounts of fun for a great cause!
Sir Anthony says:
“At one of our previous appearances in the Markel Jockeys Jumping at The London International Horse Show, Olympic gold medallist Nick Skelton resorted to using a cable tie to fix the bridle on Harry’s horse, so let’s hope we are a bit more professional this time around”! At our last appearance in 2019, we were beaten by the girls, so we’ll be putting that right this year. In all seriousness though, it’s for a great cause in the Injured Jockeys Fund – and we all love taking part.”
Juliet Redfern, Head of Equine Insurance at Markel and long-term sponsors of the event added:
“Markel is delighted to be sponsoring this fabulous event, as a specialist equine insurer we are committed to supporting the wider equine industry through various charitable initiatives. We have supported this particular event for six years, it’s great fun but more importantly provides crucial funds to the Injured Jockeys Fund, a wonderful charity that looks after its own so well.”
THE INJURED JOCKEYS FUND
For almost 60 years, the IJF helped thousands of jockeys and their families and has paid out more than £19m in charitable assistance. The IJF has three state-of-the-art rehabilitation and fitness centres, Oaksey House in Lambourn, Jack Berry House in Malton and Peter O’Sullevan House in Newmarket as well as a regional South West hub in Taunton. These are used by jockeys and other members of the equestrian and sporting communities.
Please visit www.injuredjockeys.co.uk
You can also donate £5 by texting IJF to 70800
