Racing Trainers Turn Loaders At East Garston

Lambourn is the home of the racehorse but many of racing’s famous names helped out at this fundraising shoot

- Rory Knight Bruce

The November Countryside Alliance Race Day at Cheltenham is now firmly established on the hunting and racing calendar. The highlight is the CA lunch and auction – this year attended by the Princess Royal, Zara Tindall, Sir AP McCoy, Jilly Cooper and a host of generous bidders – which raises money for both the Countryside Alliance and the Injured Jockeys Fund, of which Tony McCoy is president.

No one has been more supportive in his bidding in recent years than Bernard Gover, a member of the Royal Ascot Racing Club that won the Derby with Motivator in 2005. But did he know what he was taking on when he bought a 250-bird day near Lambourn with well-known trainers acting as loaders, Miriam Francome helping with the shoot  lunch and the legendary Joe Mercer in charge of elevenses?

The auction lot was the idea of racing and shooting fanatic Freddie Tulloch (his parents, Bill and Georgina, owned several good horses, including Lean Ar Aghaidh and Pollardstown), who recently bought and has renovated the Queens Arms pub at East Garston in Berkshire. He also runs the Kimbers shoot over several thousand downland acres nearby.

Tulloch is upholding a great tradition in these parts. His family home in the village was formerly the highly sociable establishment of bon viveur and 1960 champion amateur jockey Gay Kindersley. Regular guests in Kindersley’s day included Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Albert Finney, Peter O’Toole and HM The Queen Mother. I was myself an occasional guest, a mesmerising eye-opener for any teenager and this welcome return did not disappoint.