The estate of the noted philanthropist and Thoroughbred owner Paul Mellon has donated $3.5-million to the British Horse Racing Board's (BHB) Rehabilitation of Racehorses fund established last year to care for the more than 4,000 horses that leave racing each year.Andrew Parker-Bowles, chairman of the BHB's equine charity, received the donation and said hopes are for work to begin on a new BHB rehabilitation center in 2003.

The three approved rehabilitation facilities throughout Great Britain are the Thoroughbred Rehabilitation Centre at Nateby, near Preston, Lancashire; Moorcroft Racehorse Welfare Centre, near Battle, East Sussex; and the Greatwood Centre, near Okehampton, Devon. All three are funded by charitable donations.

"This is a big boost and we are extremely grateful to Mr. Mellon's executors, who visited Britain to look at the rehabilitation work being done there," Parker-Bowles told Racing Post. "Of the $3.5-million, $500,000 is to be put towards the new center with 5% of the rest available to us each year. We are still discussing plans, but the income will go into the existing pools of funds, and we will continue to support the existing three centers."

Mellon, who died in 1999, is best remembered for campaigning homebred Mill Reef. The son of Never Bend won 12 of 14 career starts and was named champion three-year-old in England in 1971 and champion older horse in France in 1972.