McCoy and Dettori help Equestrian Relief raise £250,000 for NHS charities

Sir Anthony McCoy and Frankie Dettori were just some of the equine stars to join forces with Equestrian Relief and help raise a fantastic £250,000 for NHS Charities Together after taking part in a series of team-based challenges over the past two weeks.

Equestrian Relief, a fundraising initiative that gathered a number of big names from the equine world, concluded on Monday evening and, although meeting with defeat as captain of Team Racing, McCoy hailed the efforts of everyone involved.

He said: "It was a pleasure to be involved and I'm really proud of everyone from the equestrian world for helping to raise a great sum of money for a cause that has touched everyone in recent times."

The event was won by Team Equestrian, captained by Zara Tindall, and which included the likes of Olympic gold medallists Carl Hester and Scott Brash as just some of the big names from equine sport.

Frankie Dettori: signed breeches raised £4,900 at charity auctionCredit: Edward Whitaker

Top lot in the charity auction was membership of a Nick Bradley Racing syndicate which raised £7,501. Zara Tindall's painting from the Horse Drawn challenge raised £5,700. Frankie Dettori's signed breeches raised £4,900 and a round of golf with McCoy and ITV Racing presenter Oli Bell earned £3,800. Collectively the charity auction added £165,440 to the total.

Ellie Orton, chief executive of NHS Charities Together, said: "We are massively grateful and inspired by all of the sports people, who are our idols, that are giving back and saying thank you.

"To hear the NHS are their heroes is fantastic and although the donations are important, as they'll make a massive difference, it's the morale and emotions that are involved which mean so much to all of our teams."

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