Racehorse tribute to plane crash victims
HUDDERSFIELD Town’s racehorse has a new stablemate.
Once-raced Huddersfilly Town lives at Ivan Furtado’s racing stables at Wiseton near Doncaster.
She was bought and then sold in shares as a syndicate horse by Huddersfield professional gambler and entrepreneur Richard Ward.
Richard’s aim is to build a string of racehorses linked to football clubs up and down the country.
Under his Blue Grey Chevron Racing brand, he has syndicated a horse for Liverpool called ShelNeverWalkAlone and he also has an as-yet-unnamed horse for rivals Everton FC.
His next horse was going to be for Premier League champions Leicester City but instead the horse has been named in tribute to players from Brazil who died in a plane crash.
Seventy-one people died – including footballers from Brazilian club Chapecoense – when the Lamia Airlines jet came down in woods near the city of Medellin in Colombia last month.
Chapecoense is based in the city of Chapecó in the state of Santa Catarina, Mr Furtado’s hometown.
Richard said that when Mr Furtado (pictured inset) asked if he could name the horse in memory of those who died, he had no hesitation.
“It was a terrible tragedy and this is a tribute to those who lost their lives,” he said. “Football has its rivalries – like Town and Leeds or Liverpool and Everton – but all that is put aside when something like this happens.”
Richard said the plan was to team up more ‘rival’ football club horses in the same racing yard, with Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United horses to be trained by former Colne Valley businessman Roger Fell in Helmsley, North Yorkshire.
Mr Furtado said he was delighted to name the latest filly Chapecoense. He said she had a good pedigree being by Derby-winning sire Sir Percy – and she had been nicknamed Sally by stable lads in the yard.
Meanwhile, Huddersfilly Town raced only once as a two-year-old this year. She made her debut on the allweather at Newcastle in November and came sixth out of eight runners. Richard said the filly was lame after the race and will be rested over the winter. He expects her to race as a three-year-old after April.
“Ivan is still very positive about her and says she is the best horse of her generation that he has,” said Richard.
“It’s disappointing that she didn’t race during the summer but she wasn’t ready. That’s racing!”
Sponsorship packages are available for Chapacoense with all money going to the Chapacoense Football Club’s Emergency Fund. The main sponsor is Brighouse-based Alliance Valves. Racehorse owner Richard Ward, pictured with Huddersfilly Town, has named a horse (above) Chapecoense in memory of Brazilian footballers killed in a plane crash in Colombia