Anybody who was lucky enough to know Jack, or even to have met him briefly will know that his love for horses and ponies was limitless. He was often therapy in himself. His cheeky smile was often all the therapy you could need on a bad day, so his legacy being an equine therapy unit is nothing short of a perfect fit.

Child vision is a charity based in Drumcondra in Dublin who work with children to provide a supportive and inclusive learning community, empowering disabled children to achieve their goals and ambitions in a limitless environment. The Jack de Bromhead equine centre will provide a specialist therapy and education centre for children with visual impairment and other difficulties using horses and ponies as therapy. As Winston Churchill once said ‘There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man’. 

The equine centre will have stabling for 10 horses and an indoor arena, enabling child vision to operate in the winter weather and the darker evenings without compromising the children, the families or the ponies. 

The Jack de Bromhead equine centre can commence being built this year with thanks to friends and family of the de Bromhead family. €1 million was raised by friends, family and associates of the de Bromhead family in a generous effort to support child vision in what they do, and create a legacy for Jack that he would be so proud of. Spear headed by Chris Jones,  a fund raising effort was launched and the €1 million raised to enable such a wonderful project to take place.

The fitting parts of the story do not stop there.

Honeysuckle, the wonder mare, who Jack loved so dearly has since retired from the track. As a superstitious person, I always kept the same set of colours for her jockey Rachael Blackmore to wear for each of her Grade 1 races. Honeysuckles owner Kenny Alexander suggested that we auctioned them and donated the money to a charity of the de Bromheads choice. Child vision was the obvious choice. 

Peter Molony, racing manager to Kenny Alexander, arranged for the famous silks to be auctioned off by the same auctioneer that auctioned Honeysuckle at the same Goffs sale in Punchestown that she was purchased by him at. I dug the colours out from their safe place, took them to Cheltenham one last time for Kenny Alexander to sign, and brought them back to Ireland where Rachael and Henry both signed them. Peter and I liased and arranged them to be framed, and the next time I will see them, will be at the sale in Punchestown where hopefully they raise a handsome sum of money to go towards the running costs of the Jack de Bromhead equine centre.  

All that Is left to say is Thank you. Thank you to Child vision for all the children’s lives they improve every day. Thank you to Chris Jones for all you have done. Thank you to those who donated so generously. Thank you to Honeysuckle for the memories. Thank you to Kenny Alexander for the idea. Thank you to Peter Molony for organising it. Thank you to Jack, he would be thrilled.