ALL IN A DAY’S WORK
Phil Hawthorne runs the Good Racing Company, which allows individuals and corporations to buy membership of a horse in training, and which directs all profits from racing to partner charities
It all began about three years ago when Rob Burrow MBE had a charity match at the Leeds Rhino rugby league ground. Rob is a former Leeds Rhino player who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) in 2019. I was at the match, I’m a passionate rugby league and horseracing fan, and I had an idea to bring the two sports together and see what we could do to help raise awareness and funds for MND.
I think I’d had a bit too much red wine but I decided that what we should do is go and buy a horse! I spoke to former jockey Mark Dwyer who led me to Henrietta Knight and we selected a very well-bred horse by Kayf Tara.
We named him Burrow Seven after Rob who always played at number seven.
In five or six weeks, we built the framework of the idea and a website. We also asked sports people and those with a social media presence to become brand ambassadors – we’re always on the lookout for more ambassadors to post and promote our content. For the launch day, we had Rob and his family there, and we sold lots of memberships.
Unfortunately, a few weeks before Burrow Seven was due to run, he was injured. He was out of action for eight or nine months. It was hard to maintain interest for members but we held stable days and tours and tried to give value for the fee.
Rob’s a really enthusiastic racegoer and the horse seems to know who he is, and makes a real effort to give him a lick. Just the second time that Rob came to the yard with his family, the horse recognised him; it was fabulous to see that rapport.
We got Burrow Seven back on track and he had three promising runs but he proved to be the clumsiest horse ever. When they unloaded him to put him out in the field for the summer, he decided to run headlong into a wall made of North Yorkshire stone and fractured his eye socket. It was a minor injury, but it had to be stitched up. Then he got a leg injury and had to retire. He’s now with New Beginnings Horses, a stable near York that rehomes and retrains ex-racehorses for a new career. He’s being retrained to be an equine therapy horse, and will visit care homes and schools.
After Burrow Seven we moved on to the next stage and created the Good Racing Company. We started to get involved with other charities including Racing Welfare and Racing to School, as we can have more impact with smaller charities and have more horses.
