Grace Muir is awarded The Sir Peter O’Sullevan Charitable Trust RoR Community Impact Award

Grace Muir, Founder and CEO of HEROS Charity, the charity that specialises in retraining and rehoming former racehorses, was awarded The Sir Peter O’Sullevan Charitable Trust Retraining of Racehorses Community Impact Award at an awards ceremony held at Cheltenham Racecourse on Festival Trails Day (Saturday 25th January).

Grace Muir receives the Sir Peter O’Sullevan RoR Community Impact Award from David Thorp. Image: focusonracing

The event celebrated the Retraining of Racehorse’s 25th anniversary, several hugely special thoroughbreds, their achievements and the people who get much enjoyment and fulfilment from them. There were so many incredible people in the room, with amazing stories about how thoroughbreds have changed, improved and impacted their lives.

The Sir Peter O’Sullevan Charitable Trust Community Impact Award was presented by RoR Chairman David Thorpe to Grace Muir. Before announcing Muir as the winner, he commented on how all three finalists should feel very proud for the work they do and the impact that they and their former racehorses have on the community.

Grace Muir has been retraining and rehoming former racehorses for over 20 years. She formally started HEROS Charity in 2006, with the sole aim of finding a second life for former racehorses, when their racing days come to an end. Now just shy of its 20-year anniversary, HEROS not only creates bright futures for former racehorses, but with funding from The Racing Foundation, started HEROS Education in 2015 and now welcomes up to 65 students aged between 11 and 16 a week with Special Educational Needs (SEN). They also run a post 16 Diploma courses for students with SEN with EHCPs, with a view to finding them relevant equine jobs at the end of it. HEROS uses former racehorses as a catalyst to spark inspiration into SEN students. The synergy in educating both horses and students is a unique model, that works brilliantly well for both.

Grace Muir commented ‘It is a huge honour to win this award on behalf of HEROS, because it is from RoR and they are the industry lead in racehorse aftercare. Although we do different work, including our fantastic education programmes for young people with special educational needs, there is no doubt that my heart lies with the horses and always has. HEROS keeps growing and developing and thank you to everyone who supports us and for everyone who voted for me to win this amazing award. Your help and support enables us to continue to grow and meet our dreams’

RoR Elite Award winners with Grace Muir, recipient of the Sir Peter O’Sullevan Community Impact Award, alongside David Catlow (left) and RoR Patron Zara Tindall (right) at the 2025 RoR Awards. Image: focusonracing

Our valued supporters

We could not continue our valuable work without the support of our many friends and donors, including corporate sponsors. Without their support many HEROS Charity fundraising events would not be possible; we are grateful to our sponsors for the opportunity their support provides in enabling us to take our fundraising activities to a wider audience.