Magnolia Cup 2024 launch

SussexWorld

The 2024 Markel Magnolia Cup is launched at Goodwood House as the riders and representatives of sponsors Markel and designated charity My Sisters' House look forward to the Glorious Goodwood race. Filmed by Steve Bone

Transcript

00:00 [CROWD NOISES]

00:10 I just really wanted to welcome you all here today.

00:14 This is a really special day and one that we all get quite emotional about.

00:18 It's a really passionate event for us and so to actually have the official launch of this year's

00:24 Magnolia Cup, the Mark L. Magnolia Cup, and to have you all here is really special.

00:29 I think I know most of you. Some of you I don't, so apologies if I don't.

00:33 So I am Canadian. I have worked for a group for 19 years and been lucky enough to be part of

00:39 Magnolia Cup for, I don't know, I won't say how long, but quite a long time since the beginning.

00:45 And I thought actually I might just start with explaining why. Why is the Magnolia Cup so special

00:51 and actually even how did it start? So we go back a couple of years to 2010.

00:57 We're doing an event called Vintage and some of you locally may have known it or not.

01:01 And it was a really amazing one-year event. But anyway, the relationship comes and we're

01:07 working with Foreign Communication and they had a client, Ladbrokes, and they said,

01:12 "Look, do you think Google could host a charity race?" And we were like, "I don't know."

01:17 So the Duke kind of came back to the team and said, "Would we do it? All the other race

01:22 courses do a charity race. Would we do this?" And we said, "Yeah, but can we do something unique,

01:28 something different, something that's Goodwood? Can we bring that extra element to it?"

01:32 And we were like, "Okay, what is it?" And it was really simple. You go back to 2010

01:38 and were women present in racing then? No, like men need to stay.

01:43 No, it wasn't a big thing. We decided actually let's celebrate women. Let's celebrate everything

01:49 that women can do. You can ride in a race. You can be a mother. You can be a wife. You can be an

01:53 entrepreneur. You can be a businesswoman. And we said, "Actually, let's celebrate what women do."

01:58 So we decided that we're going to be the first. It's quite difficult. No, actually,

02:02 we're different for Goodwood. No, we like to be different. So we decided we're going to be the

02:06 first, but that's not all we were going to do. Actually, we're going to do silks and we're

02:10 going to have them designed by female designers. And we're going to have a uniqueness to Goodwood

02:15 and to racing industry. I love silks and I love the ones in racing, but they are stars,

02:20 circles, and stripes. We did completely different. So we did that. And then we said, "Actually,

02:26 we'd love to go a step further and we'd love to be able to have charities involved that are with

02:33 women and children." So the first year was Great Ormond Street. And from there, we've just

02:37 continued to work with incredible charities. And this year, we'll come to that one. So we did that.

02:44 And then when we brought all of this together, you just can't get away from how incredible

02:51 the women are, the energy, the time that you all put in. So we've done, brought all of this

02:56 together and it came together in 2011. So then whilst we're doing that, we said, "Actually,

03:02 how do we just keep on moving this forward?" And it got to, we came, sorry, we got to how do we

03:10 decide on the different charities year by year? With the Duke and Duchess, they bring it all

03:15 together and we look at all the local charities and people who come in. And this year, we are

03:20 so excited to be supporting my sister's house. They help women to thrive, not survive. And it's

03:26 with this that we're going to make a big difference. And one that I've really felt close to

03:30 through just going to them. And we have raised 2.4 million. This is not a small amount and we

03:38 are going to hit it and we are going to smash that even more this year. And it's with the

03:42 gratitude of Markel that we pull this all together and the partnership we've had for three years

03:47 and that we continue to pull forward.

03:49 It's so great. I feel like I'm going to miss this. I've had three such events.

03:54 I'm going to go and talk to all the women who come in the local charities.

03:57 Now you can do a chatting one if you like. Do a chatting one.

04:01 [crowd noise]

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