Cheltenham Racecourse today announces
sponsorship by the Stewart Family for the third year in succession of the
£100,000 December Gold Cup on Saturday, December 14, the second day of The
International.
The handicap chase will be named the
Stewart Family Thank You Gold Cup this year, following runnings as the Paul
Stewart IronSpine Charity Challenge Gold Cup (2012) and the Spinal Research The
Atlantic 4 Gold Cup (2011).
The Stewart Family Thank You Gold Cup,
which has been in existence since 1963 and is run over two miles and five
furlongs, witnessed a rare defeat for the mighty Arkle in its second running
and has been won twice by Poquelin, owned by the Stewart Family, in recent
years (2009 & 2010).
The race continues to be sponsored by that
family, headed by Andy Stewart, the well-known businessman and racehorse owner,
most famously represented by Big Buck's, the best long distance hurdler of all
time. The family first sponsored the race to raise the profile of Spinal
Research in 2011. The trophy for the race will be presented by Bruce Stewart,
brother-in-law of Andy Stewart and uncle of Paul.
One of Andy's sons, Paul, suffered a
severe spinal injury in a snowboarding accident in December, 2008, and was
paralysed from the waist down. He was told initially by doctors that he would
never walk again, but has proved them wrong.
Paul Stewart embarked on a remarkable
challenge in August this year, covering the full Ironman triathlon distance to
raise money for research into spinal injury.
The Paul Stewart IronSpine Charity
Challenge consisted of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile cycle ride, a 26.2-mile walk
and culminated in climbing the same Alpine mountain where his injury was
incurred.
He accomplished all the challenges and has
raised £410,000 so far for the charities Spinal Research and Wings For Life.
Paul Stewart explained: "The Stewart
Family Thank You Gold Cup is to say thank you to all the people who have given
me so much support over the years and donated to the charities.
"I've had so many cards and people
coming up to me at racecourses asking me how I am doing.
"There was tremendous support when I
did the IronSpine Challenge and people from all over the world gave money to
the charities. The purpose behind this year's sponsorship is to thank everyone
who has been so kind.
"I completed the IronSpine Challenge
over 15 days in August but the training took up most of the year before.
"I found it very, very hard - harder
than I ever imagined it would be. I got through thanks to hard work,
determination and support. If I had been one lonely man, I would not have been
able to do it.
"But I had so much support and so
many well-wishers. The reason I did the challenge is that everyone has a
disability, such as disliking public speaking or being afraid of social
situations. It can be anything and my message is to always try and get the most
out of yourself - tomorrow is another day and will be better. It is amazing
what you can achieve."
Paul Stewart's Background
Always keen on sport, Paul represented the
England Hockey U18 team and went to Loughborough University to study sports.
Snow sports are a passion and in December,
2008, while snowboarding in the Alps, he was caught in an avalanche and fell
200ft, sustaining an L1 spinal cord injury.
27 at the time, he was told he would never
walk again but now gets around with two walking sticks and leg braces.
Paul is still completely paralysed below
the knee, has limited glutes and has compensated for the lack of hamstrings by
building up other muscles to 10 times their normal strength, so he walks mainly
using his quads and hip flexors to the amazement of clinicians.
He was not be satisfied with just walking
and in 2012 trained and achieved qualifying times for the London Paralympics S6
swimming category; being one of the first people to swim in the Olympic pool.
The IPC moved him to S7 category, saying
he had achieved too much in a short space of time, so he did not make London
2012, although he carried the Olympic torch in July last year.
He remains a keen sportsman and plays
wheelchair tennis among many other activities.
The Charities
For more information on Wings for Life,
visit please visit www.wingsforlife.com/en
The Stewart Family Thank You Gold Cup
The Stewart Family Thank You Gold Cup has
attracted 35 entries, including the Paddy Power Gold Cup winner Johns Spirit,
plus Colour Squadron, Attaglance and Rajdhani Express, who
finished second, fourth and fifth to him in the feature race of The Open last
month.
The Stewart Family are involved in two
entries - owning last weekend's Newbury winner Tatenen outright and
sharing Ghizao with the Johnson Family.
The weights for the race are announced
tomorrow, Wednesday, December 4.
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