Australian jockey Craig Williams with medical supplies bound for Ukraine.
Australian jockey Craig Williams with medical supplies bound for Ukraine.
For superstar Australian jockey Craig Williams, the millions that matter most aren’t those on offer at tonight’s glamourous TAB Karaka Millions at Ellerslie.
The real millions, the money that changes and even saves lives, are the $3.3 million Williams and his wife Larysa have raised for thevictims of the war in Ukraine.
Larysa is Ukrainian, and she and Craig have returned to her home country many times since it was invaded by Russia to do what they can to help.
What they have done has been remarkable.
“We have raised over $3m but it is not enough,” says Williams, one of the world’s best jockeys.
“It is heartbreaking when we go to Ukraine and see the devastation, the real human cost.
Australian jockey Craig Williams with medical supplies bound for Ukraine.
“I think about it every day. Sometimes I even feel guilty going to a cafe to have a coffee back here, having the freedom to do that safely, while people are going through such horrors over there.”
The 47-year-old covers all the administration costs of the fund he and Larysa have set up to support Ukrainians so all money raised can go directly to aid.
But helping from afar is not good enough for the couple.
“We have made four trips there to help deliver trauma kits to people, we want them to know people 15,000km away care.”
On their last trip, they purchased four vehicles in Poland and took them across the border into Ukraine.
“The Ukrainian people need so many things. There are medical supplies and food of course but also things like cellphones, transport – all the things we take for granted.
“Many of them have lost everything so we try to be practical and use the money we raise to buy the things they need.”
Williams admits it is jarring going to Ukraine and then returning to his high-profile life riding at the biggest racing carnivals in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, but he is thankful one can help pay for the other.
If he rides a winner at tonight’s huge Ellerslie meeting you can expect a very different victory salute: Williams now raises three fingers in his post-race celebrations to symbolise the golden trident on the Ukrainian coat of arms.
With no end in sight to the war, the couple’s fundraising and trips to Larysa’s home country will continue.
“We’d love New Zealanders to help too because I have heard there is a growing Ukrainian population here and we are all so lucky to live in a peaceful part of the world.”
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
