Polo club gallops to British event rider’s aid
The Dubai Polo & Equestrian Club is offering an exclusive short holiday for two to one discerning bidder at a glittering charity auction in Bloomsbury, London, on September 12.
The auction is being held to raise funds for one of Britain’s brightest medal prospects at the next Olympics, international event rider Emily Baldwin. Emily, 32, who is based in Lamberhurst, Kent, is the only female British rider to have won two World Cup CIC*** classes, at Chatsworth in 2011 and at Haras du Pin in France in 2010. But the horse she rode to victory then, Drivetime, will be too old to compete in the Rio de Janeiro Games.
Emily needs to raise a bare minimum of £250,000 this summer to buy a new world-class horse and must begin its advanced training in autumn if she is have a chance of competing in Rio.
The polo package includes three training sessions at the exclusive Dubai Polo Academy and accommodation for two at the equally exclusive Arabian Ranches Golf Club nearby, a unique property with only 11 luxurious rooms.
Bidding on the package promises to be one of the highlights of the champagne event, which will held from 6pm at the historic, Grade 1-listed Mary Ward House at 5-7 Tavistock Place, within easy reach of Euston, King’s Cross and Russell Square stations.
The auction will be conducted by James Braxton, a face familiar to millions from television’s Bargain Hunt, Dickinson’s Real Deal and Flog it!. Dozens of contemporary and equestrian artworks will also go under the hammer, including Game On!, an oil-on-canvas polo painting by renowned Dubai-based British artist Brian Ralph. Full details are available at www.greenhorseart.com