The horses will run again at this year’s Steeplechase.
Steeplechase set for May 10
The 67th annual Iroquois Steeplechase — presented by Bank of America and benefiting the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt — is set for Saturday, May 10, at Nashville's Percy Warner Park.
Gates open at 8 a.m., and the first horse race starts at 1 p.m.
The event is sponsored by the Volunteer State Horsemen's Foundation in association with the Friends of Children's Hospital. More than 100 committee chairmen are working to plan the event, and more than 600 volunteers will be helping out on race day.
The 2008 child ambassador for Steeplechase is Ashley Hedgepath, 11, an avid horse lover, who was a patient at Children's Hospital last year. Ashley was treated for a malformation in her brainstem which could have been life-threatening. Matthew Pearson, M.D., assistant professor of Pediatric Neurosurgery, performed the complicated surgery to remove the golf ball-sized growth. A few months after surgery, Ashley was able to ride her horse again, and has fully recuperated.
General admission tickets are $15 at the gate. Children 12 and under are admitted free. For more information or to purchase tickets in advance, visit www.iroquoissteeplechase.org or call 322-4814.
Since its affiliation with Children's Hospital in 1981, the Iroquois Steeplechase has raised more than $8 million for specialized medical equipment, pediatric critical care and research into childhood diseases.