On Saturday, 11th May 2024, we were delighted to host members of the Blind Racegoers Club (London) which has been taking registered blind and partially-sighted people horse racing for the past 50 years.
The club started from humble beginnings – their founder, equine artist Caroline Marsden, used to read books to blind people and one day in conversation with one of the people she was reading for, told him that she was going to a horserace meeting at the weekend. The blind person said that he had never been horseracing but would like to go, so Caroline said she would take him. The visit was a great success and the blind person thoroughly enjoyed his day out.
Caroline, alongside some friends to help, then organised a party of 12 blind people to go to a race meeting, funding it herself; again with great success. One of her friends was Valerie Freedman who was the wife of Louis Freedman who subsequently owned Reference Point the Derby and St Leger winner trained by the late Sir Henry Cecil and ridden by Steve Cauthen. Caroline and Valerie continued to arrange meetings on an ad-hoc basis and decided to set about raising funds to establish a club.
The Blind Racegoers Club have a long history of attending racing at Ascot and had the honour of being presented to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother at QIPCO King George Day for many years.
The Club are keen to encourage the next generation of blind racegoers to experience a day at the races and interested parties can contact the club via email:
[email protected].
You can also hear more from Bruce Barham, the Club’s Chairman, who was interviewed by Ascot TV on the day.
