Second Hayes Golden Button Challenge proves a great success

Eddie Ahern riding World Wide Web won the 2007 Hayes Golden Button Challenge, held in the Ledbury Hunt’s country on New Year’s Eve.

World Wide Web, an 11-year-old gelding owned by Mick and Heather Ridley (who live just two miles from the finishing line near the Gloucestershire village of Forthampton), beat 31 rivals in an event that was given a massive thumbs-up by both spectators and competitors.

Sarah Myhill riding Captain Rawlings finished second and won a Golden Button for being the leading lady rider and first veteran, while Zoe Gibson on Piper took third. Richard Mason, riding Coco, also gained two golden buttons, crossing the line in fifth and gaining the leading young rider and non-thoroughbred awards.

William Fox Grant, who travelled to the Hayes Golden Button Challenge from his home in Wiltshire, finished ninth in the feature event on Celebrity, then took part in the JCB Diggers Inter Hunt Challenge, a new competition in which teams of up to four riders took part over the same course. Fox Grant, who was part of a Wilton Hunt team called the Fox Grant Triers, was first across the line in this event on six-year-old Ferrari, a horse who looks a future Hayes Golden Button Challenge winner.

Rosie and Tamara Vestey and Jane Edmunds, representing the Cotswold Hunt, won the team prize ahead of Berkeley ‘R’ Us (Vicky Vatcher, Jamie Mcguire, Nelson Rowe and Sarah Meredith) and a Ledbury team (David Redvers, Roger Warner, Jane Windsor Clive and Carl Evans).

Two more golden buttons were given after this event, with Roger Warner gaining one for being the first Ledbury subscriber, and Colin Thomson of the Golden Valley Border Raiders gaining the heavyweight award.

More than 1,000 people paid to view the 2007 Hayes Golden Button Challenge, which was staged to raise money for the local air ambulance, the Royal Agricultural Benefit Institution and the Ledbury Hunt. A masked ball was held in conjunction with the horse racing, and some 500 people saw the New Year in at this glittering event.

David Redvers, who masterminded the first Hayes Golden Button Challenge and chairs the organising committee, thanked everyone who played a part in staging both races and the ball. He gave special thanks to the medical and veterinary experts who attended, to John Francome, the seven-times champion jump jockey who acted as starter for both contests, and to the landowners who allow the runners and public to cross their land.

In particular he thanked the Warner family, notably Roger Warner, who acted as clerk of the course. Redvers said the Hayes Golden Button Challenge had been a great success and will take place once again on New Year’s Eve 2008.

Photos are courtesy of Cotswold Photography. Please visit the web site for more photos from the Hayes Golden Button Challenge (see equestrian events).