ROCK guitarist Mark Knopfler played local hero when he performed the celebrity opening for a charity donkey derby in the New Forest.

Rain was forecast and it could have spelled dire straits for the organisers but hundreds of punters poured in to the Brockenhurst venue to see the veteran rocker - and the donkeys.

The original Sultan of Swing, who has a home at Beaulieu, risked getting a blister on his finger signing autographs on race cards, T-shirts, CDs and LP records and even a guitar for local fans. However, donkey derby punters and music fans were not giving their money for nothing.

The afternoon organised by the New Forest Rotary Club is expected to have raised several thousand pounds for the Brockenhurst group of the Riding for the Disabled Association which is bidding to build a £65,000 indoor school at the Ford Farm stables where the donkey derby was staged.

"This is better than our wildest dreams," said Rotary club chairman Clive Brace.

"It's a very exciting day for me. It's my first donkey derby," Mark told the crowds who thronged the paddock where Rotarian rockers Dr Ted and the Medics provided pre-race entertainment from a farm trailer stage.

He added: "It's a great cause and I hope you spend lots of money to build this fabulous indoor riding centre so that the Riding for the Disabled can do their wonderful work whether it is raining or not."

The seven-race donkey derby programme saw young jockeys battling to stay on their unsaddled mounts as the mokes trotted down the half-furlong course, cheered all the way by anxious punters who had staked 50 pence on the tote.

Stalls, bouncy castle, face-painting, barbecue, bar and cow-pat lottery added to the racegoers fun and youngsters, including six-year-old Isabella Knopfler, enjoyed pony rides on the Ford Farm mange.