On 10 November 2021, WVS and our guests had an enchanting and enjoyable evening when our very own fabulous Sara Brown interviewed our fantastic speaker, Richard Dunwoody, three-time champion jockey and now, motivational speaker and photographer. Richard described how he overcome his own challenges and endured the toughness of rising through the racing career to be at the very heart of racing. We learned about the day to day realities of racing and of its dizzying heights; Richard’s string of Cheltenham Festival wins and other big wins in Great Britain and in Ireland and, of course about the horses, including the iconic Desert Orchid, revered within National Hunt Racing. Expertly, Sara questioned Richard in her warm, conversational style. Richard’s brush with the Strictly Come Dancing was more scary than top level racing! On the big screen, we saw spectacular pictures of Richard’s amazing adventures and he dazzled us by describing these: his trek, in the footsteps of the explorer Shackleton, to the South Pole! Did you ever see such gruelling conditions; the amazing Mongol Derby, through desert, across mountains and the steppes of Mongolia; and the Gaucho Derby on the Argentinian side of Patagonia. At first hand we heard more of Richard’s deeply competitive side, which combined with such kindness and decency adds up to make Richard the truly inspirational person that he is. Very fortunately, he had copies to hand of his book, “Method in My Madness”, which were rapidly snapped up and will enable us to learn more about Richard and re-live this wonderful evening. Thank you Richard and thank you Sara
