'I thought I could come up with an auction' - Simon Besanson raising money for cancer and motor neurone charities

The saying goes that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. 

Simon Besanson has been given two tragic turns with family members and is now aiming to raise money for Irish cancer and motor neurone charities through Racingforareason. 

It includes four fundraisers, namely a Cheltenham Festival preview night in February, a stallion nomination auction, a raffle and a trainer tour auction. The auctions will be held on ThoroughBid's online platform throughout the first week of January.

Besanson, a former publican, has had a lifelong involvement with horses and racing.

"My love of it all came from my dad; he'd always keep a broodmare at home, including one who was a relation to Cole Harden," he said. "He bought a filly foal up at the sales by a stallion called Alphabatim and, as we owned a pub at the time called Porters, we called her Porters Pet.

"We had great fun with her point-to-pointing all over the country, she won a six-year-old mares' at Castletown-Geoghegan, James Rath rode her, having had seconditis up to then. She also went up to Kirkistown, where Jamie Codd rode her, she was well clear but then burst a blood vessel and stopped before being caught on the line. We were unlucky she never had foals for us as my dad would have loved that."

He added: "I've had a couple of mares and have bred a winner, while at the moment I have a two-year-old filly by Ice Breeze out of a mare called Shantou Una, who I jointly own with my friend Michael Ruttle."

Having run a pub for five years through to 2019 and always flirted with the idea of Cheltenham preview nights there, it sparked an idea to raise money after his father was sadly diagnosed with cancer this summer.

"We sold the pub in 2019 after I'd run it from 2014, I was the fourth generation of the family to run it," said Besanson. "Cheltenham was always the busiest time of year for us and the pub was usually full of punters for it, it was a great atmosphere.

"Unfortunately cancer has hit my family hard twice; my dad, Thomas, was diagnosed in August and my mother-in-law Martha is battling it too, so I said I was going to run a preview night and raise a bit of money.

"I had contacted Joseph O'Brien to be part of it, he said he wasn't in a position to do it as he didn't know where he'd be, but that he'd donate me a morning on the gallops. That was my inspiration behind the whole thing, while the first person to give me a stallion nomination was Gordon Doyle. 

"Once I had those two, I thought I could come up with an auction. I thought about just doing Irish trainers and stallion nominations but it has just gone on from there."

In addition to O'Brien, there are yard visits to Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott, Jessica Harrington, Nicky Henderson, Dan Skelton, Henry de Bromhead, Lucinda Russell and Alan King, while stallion nominations include to Ocovango, Bangkok, Mirage Dancer, Dawn Approach, Shaman, Inns Of Court, Falco, Roseman and Way To Paris. 

"The money will go to the Irish Cancer Society and the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association as my brother's father-in-law, Pat Griffith, is battling motor neurone disease," explained Besanson. 

"I would like to thank everyone who has donated and supported me, including the 70 stallion nominations and 30 trainers who are opening their yards for a morning on the gallops and breakfast. If anybody else would like to donate, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

"Hopefully I'll have a figure on everything by the preview night on February 29."

ThoroughBid's James Richardson added: "It's something we're delighted to be supporting and we'll be doing our level best to make sure Racingforareason raises as much money as possible."

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