Thursday 22nd August
The Lower Green Community Centre in Esher opened its doors to two very special equine guests on Tuesday 20th August in the shape of Step Back and Coneygree.
The pair of retired racehorses were both trained by the late Mark Bradstock. Coneygree enjoyed his finest hour when triumphing in the 2015 Cheltenham Gold Cup while Step Back was the winner of the 2018 bet365 Gold Cup at nearby Sandown Park.
Step Back is also currently Sandown Park’s equine ambassador for the Retraining of Racehorses “Horses for Courses” programme. The role of equine ambassadors is to serve as an important link between the racecourse and the local community. As well as giving racegoers the chance to interact more closely with horses, the ambassadors provide the opportunity for courses to educate the general public about racehorses and their lives after racing.
Lower Green Community Centre is a welcoming community support hub with a cafe where local people can meet for a chat, take part in various activities and access help and support when needed. The centre runs a Community Fridge and Foodstore stocked with surplus supermarket produce.
Jenny Green, Community Projects Manager at Lower Green Community Centre, said: “It was great to welcome Step Back and Coneygree to Lower Green.
“We are very close neighbours to Sandown Park and the racecourse has come to us this morning. When we were approached and asked if we wanted to have a racehorse come down to Lower Green and meet the families, we were just knocked back as it’s so amazing. The sun was out and there were lots of people here.
“It was fantastic to see all the children and their families getting up really close to the racehorses. Not many of them will have ever had the chance to get this close to a horse and they are such beautiful creatures.
“Both horses are obviously retired but are great ambassadors for the sport and bringing racing into the community to those who don’t go racing, those who are not interested or cannot afford it for example. By being able to get up close to a horse today, it will perhaps spark an interest in some of these young people for the future.
“To have Sandown Park on your doorstep, as we do in the Lower Green Community, is fantastic. A lot of local people obviously work there and it is a good source of employment as well as being an important leisure facility. The Family Festival Friday is coming up on August 30th and with free entry for children, these families here today are really going to benefit from that.
“Sandown Park support us in many ways. At Christmas, there is the gifting programme when those racegoers attending the Tingle Creek Festival bring gifts for local families, which we then collect. We have had huge collections in recent years which has been fantastic and we have distributed them through the community centre. It is very simple but makes a huge difference and makes a big impact on local families.”
