Doherty wins big at Godolphin Stable Awards
Watership Down Stud Manager named Employee of the Year
Terry Doherty, Stud Manager for Watership Down Stud, picked up the prestigious Employee of the Year at the 2017 UK Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards.
Hosted by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), the Awards honour the vital role of stud and stable staff in the racing industry and the care which they provide to the horses they look after. In a poignant moment, Doherty was awarded the perpetual Godolphin Trophy by Freddy Tylicki, special guest presenter and jockey. Tylicki was left paralysed from the waist down after a four-horse pile-up at Kempton in October last year.
Doherty was also presented with a cheque for £40,000 (Dh182,753), of which £20,000 will be shared amongst the staff at the Watership Down Stud, a Hampshire-based facility owned by Andrew Lloyd-Webber, the legendary music composer and his wife Madeleine. In total, £120,000 in prize money was awarded to winners of the various categories by sponsors Godolphin.
The other category winners on the night were: Elisha Whittington from Tom Dascombe’s Manor House Stables who took the David Nicholson Newcomer Award; Brian Meehan’s assistant trainer Rory O’Dowd who took the Leadership Award; Jamie Bunsell of Paul Henderson Racing who was successful in the Rider/Groom category; and Head Lad to Sir Mark Prescott, Colin Nutter, whose 45 years caring for horses at Heath House earned him the Dedication to Racing Award. Also honoured was Sarah Monkman whose work raising the profile of Racing Welfare saw her land the Rory MacDonald Community Award, which is in just its second year.