Legendary jockey AP McCoy will be among the equestrians supporting a charity showjumping event at Addington Manor, Bucks this weekend (Sunday, 8 September).
The Jump For Life (JFL) British Showjumping (BS) affiliated show, which donates all proceeds to Cancer Research UK, is now in its third edition, having previously run at Quainton Stud in 2015 and 2017.
The schedule features classes from 1.05m to a 1.35m, with a £1,000 grand prix and offers a total prize fund of more than £7,000.
AP McCoy will be putting on his running shoes for a new addition to the show this year — the unaffiliated 1.05m JFL ride and run handicap, where runners “may be handicapped at the organisers’ discretion”.
“Because of the BS show categories, we can’t run anything smaller than a 1.10m and a lot of people said they were interested in jumping a smaller class, so we’ve swapped this in for the newcomers,” said organiser Alex O’Sullivan.
“It will be up to the judges and course builder [Phil Ashworth] how the handicaps are used, so it’s something we hope to have a bit of fun with.”
Scrummies Rosettes are providing the ribbons for the show, while Bettalife is also backing the rosettes and winners rugs. Chris Parker is donating the venue for the day while all judges and officials are providing their time for free.
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The show concept was conceived by Alex, her son Ryan, Carly Read and Ross Irving after they had all lost friends and family members to cancer.
“Carly lost her mum, Ross lost his partner Ian, who he’d been with for 42 years and is sponsoring the grand prix in memory of, my dad was very ill at the time of the first show and I also lost my best friend to cancer,” said Alex.
“It came out of a bit of despair and misery and heartbreak and the only thing we could do about it was raise money for more research,” she said. “When we ran the first show we were overwhelmed by the support we had from competitors, spectators and people donating money, prizes and sponsorship for the classes.”
In line with the format of previous years, there will be a charity auction, named after Alex’s friend Jane Winter and co-hosted by Graham Fletcher and AP McCoy. Items up for grabs include hospitality tickets for Thursday night at Horse of the Year Show.
There is also a raffle — where prizes include a commissioned pet portrait by artist Joanne Prestidge-King, as well as a host of other donations from businesses such as KBIS and VioVet. This year a dozen tradestands will also set up to keep spectators entertained.
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