Happy Mondays star Bez launches racing club and fans can join him

Bez from Happy Mondays has launched his own racing club and is inviting fans to join him in the venture.

The 56-year-old music star has recruited a horse called Mystic Moonshadow, which will be trained by Jedd O'Keeffe.

Prior to setting up the club, the maracas-shaking legend's only experience of the sport has been betting on the Grand National and reading Dick Francis novels as a child.

"The horse is looking really good. She's so fast I think she is going to be a winner," he told the PA News Agency.

"She is outrunning all the horses of her age and she has had to start training with older, more experienced horses."

Bez, whose real name is Mark Berry, will donate winnings from the horse to homelessness charity, Coffee 4 Craig.

He has been a long-standing supporter after he spent time sleeping rough as a young man.

In races, Mystic Moonshadow will carry the 'United red and City blue' colours in tribute to Manchester's two largest football clubs.

"It's all the joys and nightmares of horse ownership without the cost," he told fans.

"It's like a private members club where you come on the journey with me and the horse."

Bez, who started the club in partnership with Racing4Business and its founder Phil Hawthorne, said the name Mystic Moonshadow had come to him in a dream.

"With my youngest son, every time there is a full moon we are always dancing in the garden in the moon shadow," he said.

The two-year-old filly is sired by Showcasing, who broke the track record when winning the Gimcrack Stakes at York.

Trainer Jedd O'Keeffe said: "Mystic Moonshadow is an enormously exciting horse and she comes from a fantastic pedigree.

"Her father has a great track record of siring Group One-winning fillies and her mother is an impressive sprinter too, so there's a lot of speed in both parents.

"The ideal attributes for a winning racehorse are a great pedigree, willing attitude, competitive nature, good movement, a great size and the aptitude to want to be a great racehorse.

"Mystic Moonshadow appears to have all of these qualities."

Members of the club will receive a welcome pack including a hand-written postcard from Bez, certificate of membership, car window sticker and monthly newsletter updates.

They will also have the chance to visit the horse at the stables and enjoy the owners' enclosure at the races, when coronavirus restrictions ease.

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