Starship turns down $570,000

The Herald reports:

One of New Zealand horse racing’s biggest names has been left stunned after being turned down by Starship Children’s Hospital for a free charity partnership to the tune of more than half a million dollars.

Mark Chittick is the owner of the thoroughbred nursery Waikato Stud and also owns the majority of 4-year-old galloper I Wish I Win, even though the horse now races in Australia.

I Wish I Win won the A$10 million Golden Eagle race at Rosehill in Sydney on Saturday and the race came with a A$520,000 ($570,000) donation to a charity of the winning owner’s choice.

Cambridge-based Chittick wanted to donate that money to Starship but was turned down last week before the race was run. …

“They rang me back an hour later and declined. They were really polite about it but said they didn’t want to take money associated with racing or gambling.

“I couldn’t believe it and now that is A$520,000 which will never come to New Zealand and help Kiwi kids.”

What an appalling decision.

Do they turn down money from Lotto?

This isn’t about sponsorship or partnership – simply a donation.

Kids at Starship will be penalised due to this decision. It is putting ideology over patients.

UPDATE: They now claim they don’t have a policy against accepting such donations and they just didn’t have enough time to say yes to it. Sounds like spin to me, after realising how badly this reflects on them.