Millionaire businessman raising money for charity wants YOU to help name his racehorses after your favourite song

BIG hearted owner Phil Cunningham is a man with a plan as he bids to go from charity champion to the toast of Town Moor.

Cunningham, 54, has enjoyed considerable success on the racetrack, both at home, and abroad, since bursting on to the scene with Cockney Rebel, who landed the English and Irish 2000 Guineas double in 2007.

And now the Essex-based businessman hopes his next potential star Righthere Rightnow, who is named after Fatboy Slim’s iconic dance anthem, can advertise his Classic credentials in the Group Two Betfred Champagne Stakes at Doncaster on Saturday.

However, while excited about what the future holds for his musically inspired string based in Newmarket trainer Richard Spencer, Cunnignham admits he was at a crossroads with the sport he loves until hatching his latest masterplan.

Cunningham said: “I’ve been an owner for a while and my family love the game as well, but I came to a point in time where it was to either invest at a greater level, or I suppose scale down a bit. I was really at a crossroads.

“When you have had a taste of running at the big meetings and winning a Classic you want to keep that going so I decided to put a bit more money in, while we have been more selective in what we have run which has shown in our near 20 per cent strike rate.

“We teamed up with bloodstock agent Anthony Bromley last year and we ended up getting some lovely horses like Righthere Rightnow and Yah Mo Be There.

“We have repeated that again this year, as we got five colts at the Tattersalls Somerville Yearling Sale and a few more at the Goffs Yearling Sale at Doncaster, which are now all up with Adam Kirby at Vicarage Farm for pre-training.

“The dream would be to have a home bred stallion and a good few horses that could take us around the world.”

While plenty will have seen Cunningham, who is CEO of insurance firm Direct Commercial Limited, splash the cash in the sales ring recently, few will be aware of his work with charity The Little Edi Foundation which helps and supports underprivileged families in the Chelmsford area.

Cunningham added: “As we have been fortunate in business, and life, a few years ago we set up The Cunningham Foundation and the idea was to help children’s charities where the organisers are volunteers.

“We help a lot of families, through The Little Edi Foundation, by buying things like school uniforms for those that can’t afford them, while we got the charity a van to help them deliver food parcels donated by supermarkets.

“My company also gets involved as well, by funding summer camps to give the children some days out and help the parents have a break.

“It is great what the charity does for the kids. I try to pop along one day when they run the summer camps and it is very humbling and emotional.

And to help bolster their coffers Cunningham even named a HORSE after the charity, with every single penny of his winnings going to the group before his retirement last season.

Cunningham added: “As regards to Little Edi the horse I thought it would be a fun thing that would help bring a bit of attention to the charity. He was only small, but he had the heart of a lion.

“He won two out of his 13 starts and was placed in lots of his other races. He won around £20,000 and all that money went to the charity. He was a special horse.”

As for this weekend Cunningham is confident Righthere Rightnow can take a step up in class in his stride having blown his rivals away in impressive fashion on his debut at Newmarket last month.

Cunningham said: “He was purchased as a foal in France so he qualified for that French newcomers maiden at Deauville, which pays a lot of money, but I decided he is more of a longer term plan we thought the best thing was to give him a debut at home.

“We wanted to take him to a top track, and the way he did it was very impressive, while he also took a long time to pull up.

“I think he is ready for a race like this as Rab Havlin felt there was plenty more improvement and he won’t mind cut in the ground.”

And while Cunningham is excited about the futures of both Righthere Rightnow and Listed scorer Yah Mo Be there, he insists still has some more musically named aces among his young pack to help make those long winter nights fly by.

Cunningham added: “We haven’t even run half of the two year olds this year. We have some lovely ones to come out and we have got some good names lined up for them. The riding out list looks more like a playlist!

“We got one at Doncaster this year and he is named after The Rolling Stones song Start Me Up and hopefully he will be exciting.

“While they are mainly colts we purchased a lovely filly that won’t run this year called Maneater.

“We got her out of Tattersalls Book One last year, which is a rare purchase for me. The dream would be the Oaks and work backwards from that.

“And with both Righthere Rightnow and Yah Mo Be There hopefully making it to the 2000 Guineas it should be a fun winter for the team.”

If you would like to donate to the charity please go to www.littleedi.co.uk

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