Author: Richard Hammill

January sees the launch of Pontefract Racecourse’s ‘Twelve Months of Giving’ for New Beginnings Horses – a charity who provide a safe and secure environment for former racehorses, where they can adjust and be re-trained for their second career following racing.

In 2023, Pontefract Racecourse announced that former racehorse and New Beginnings resident, Nearly Caught (affectionately known as Nico), was to become their first Racehorse Ambassador. Earning just under £350,000 in prize money, Nearly Caught was a strong stayer who competed over marathon trips all around Europe. During his career, Nearly Caught was no stranger to Pontefract either as he won the Phil Bull Trophy by an impressive 10 lengths in 2015 – his biggest winning margin throughout his esteemed career!

Ahead of the launch of the new campaign, Richard Hammill, Chief Operating Officer for Pontefract Racecourse, said:

‘We pride ourselves on providing the highest level of equine welfare at Pontefract when racehorses visit the track and were delighted to team up with New Beginnings and welcome Nico as our Racehorse Ambassador. It’s been a privilege getting to know Nico and all the team here absolutely adore him. Having visited the yard in 2023, we were all keen to be able to do as much as we possibly could to help New Beginnings and the horses in their care. Launching ‘The Twelve Months of Giving’ was a natural progression to help raise the visibility of the charity and to showcase the wonderful care that is given to thoroughbreds in the next stage of their career.’

The campaign will see a variety of fundraising activity for New Beginnings taking place in every month in 2024. There’ll be opportunities for racegoers to see Nico (and some of his friends) and the New Beginnings team on each of the Racecourse’s Family Race Days, while other events will include staff volunteering days, a visit to the yard for Pontefract Racecourse Annual Badge Holders, bucket collections, community visits to local schools and the Prince of Wales Hospice and even attending a Castleford Tigers match!

Pam and Kevin Atkinson of New Beginnings said:

‘We have been taking the horses to meet the racegoers at Pontefract for over 10 years and we really enjoy working with the whole team there. We’re thrilled to be part of their Twelve Months of Giving campaign. We see daily the powerful impact racehorses have on people lives and we are delighted to be partnering with Pontefract Racecourse on this initiative so more people can experience and learn what horses do for people, and people for horses. The campaign will hopefully help us to raise vital funds to be able to continue to care for these wonderful horses who give us so much joy.’

If you’d like to make a donation to New Beginnings Horses, please click here.

Click here for more information on Pontefract Racecourse and the Twelve Months of Giving.

For more information on New Beginnings Horses, please click here .

Welcome to another blog from the team at Pontefract Racecourse.

Every fortnight, someone from the team will share their thoughts for your entertainment (or otherwise!):

• Managing Director, Norman Gundill with his trusty PA, Caroline who also looks after the hospitality,
• Accounts Manager, Nicola,
• Admin manager, Carol,
• Marketing exec, Alexia, and,
• Chief Operating Officer, Richard who is writing this blog.

Pontefract aside, one of the best Racecourses in the country, and possibly the world, is York Racecourse.

While the National Hunt purists have the Cheltenham Festival, the Ebor Festival is often regarded as one of the best festivals in the flat racing calendar with both avid racegoers and socialites mixing on the Knavesmire.

York is quite rightly put on a pedestal with some wonderful facilities and excellent service. If you have not visited the area before, it is well worth adding to the bucket list as not only does the course put on a fantastic spectacle, but the beautiful city comes alive with racegoers continuing their days out well into the evening.

With a small break in the racing schedule at Pontefract, the office team were able to take a well deserved break and have a day out on Wednesday to see some of the greatest thoroughbreds in training battle on the York turf. A day at the races is something of a ‘busman’s holiday’ but it’s hugely important for us to visit other places, see what’s happening elsewhere and pick up examples of best practice that we might be able to bring back to Pontefract. We had a brilliant day out and it was fantastic to see so many people enjoying the sport and all that it offers.

The racing itself was brilliant as always but, as the industry continues to face it’s own battles, we, like many others in the industry, were disappointed to see small fields for the Group races. With one million pounds worth of prize money on offer, it was particularly sad to see a field of just 4 horses line up for the Juddmonte International. Despite a wonderful initial entry, opposition to the new wonderhorse, Paddington, began to drop out one by one and it was left to John and Thady Gosden’s Mostahdaf to provide the sternest test. And, under the inimitable Frankie Dettori, he saw off the young pretender in scintillating fashion. It begs the question as to how good the Japanese horse, Equinox , must be as he had the subsequent Juddmonte winner 7 lengths behind him without being asked for maximum effort.

It was good to see the team from New Beginnings also out in force at the track with their wonderful team of Racehorse Ambassadors (including our own Nico – Nearly Caught) on hand to greet the racegoers.  If you’re going to York on Friday, keep an eye out for our very own Alexia, who will be helping out on the New Beginnings stand and will happily sell you some raffle tickets or Christmas cards!

Welcome to another blog from the team at Pontefract Racecourse.

Every fortnight, someone from the team will share their thoughts for your entertainment (or otherwise!):

• Managing Director, Norman Gundill with his trusty PA, Caroline who also looks after the hospitality,
• Accounts Manager, Nicola,
• Admin manager, Carol,
• Marketing exec, Alexia, and,
• Chief Operating Officer, Richard (who is writing today’s blog)

Pontefract Racecourse is not only a Racecourse, but we’re a part of a busy and thriving community. It is important for us to not only offer a fantastic venue for the racing audience, but to be able to support and benefit some of the under represented groups in our area.

We have worked with racing based charities such as Racing Welfare and The Injured Jockeys Fund for several years, but have extended our community based work to groups in the local area who had no particular connection to the Racing Industry and who, perhaps, felt that the Racecourse and what it had to offer, was outside their scope.

We started working with the Into The Sky Theatre Company in 2016. They are a group of young adults with varied special education needs and they meet at the Racecourse each week for a music and drama workshop. Many of the students are based in and around Pontefract and, by using the Racecourse space, they are able to work towards putting on theatre performances throughout Wakefield and the five towns.

The group has a number of neurodivergent students as well as those with accessibility issues and many found themselves at a loss of what to do once they have finished their college courses. Allowing these young people to use a room at the Racecourse has given them the opportunity to thrive as well as celebrate and raise awareness of the creative talents of people with learning disabilities.

The Into The Sky Theatre Group are now an integral part of the Racecourse. Not only do they have a named race and a bucket collection to enable them to raise vital funds, they have been a huge help to the Racecourse in enabling us to upgrade our accessibility facilities – from giving feedback on viewing as well as what is expected of an accessible toilet. At our recent ‘Racing For Everyone’ raceday, we welcomed guests from Autism In Racing on site. They were able to meet some of the team members from Into The Sky to enable us to continue to improve and upgrade our facilities and understand what is needed.

We also have an annual Christmas party for the group and it’s truly one of the highlights of the year for the Admin team. The anticipation of their ever changing version of the Twelve Days of Christmas is truly something to behold.   

We’ve also been able to introduce the group to horse racing as well! The majority had never been to a race meeting before but are now regulars at our family events, as well as the music nights where they’re able to take advantage of the dedicated accessible viewing areas that we have for these events. They were even filmed for the Sky Bet Sunday Series in 2022 and had their own slot on the ITV coverage of the race meeting.

The Into The Sky Group, and their sister group Cross The Sky , go from strength to strength and have performances booked later in the year at Wakefield Theatre Royal and Barnsley Civic. If you get the chance to see any of their shows, make sure to do so. You won’t be disappointed.

Welcome to another blog from the team at Pontefract Racecourse.

Every fortnight, someone from the team will share their thoughts for your entertainment (or otherwise!):

• Managing Director, Norman Gundill with his trusty PA, Caroline who also looks after the hospitality,
• Accounts Manager, Nicola,
• Admin manager, Carol,
• Marketing exec, Alexia, and,
• Chief Operating Officer, Richard (who is writing today’s blog)

Will AI change the future of horse racing?

I wear a few different hats at the Racecourse – Clerk of the Course and Chief Operating Officer as well as overseeing the Marketing, Brand and Sponsorship offering at the track. I try to keep track of new trends and developments in the racing world, while also keeping an eye on the broader aspects that the different sides of my role entails.

The marketing world is in continual development – especially when it comes to the digital offering. Once upon a time, the website was the primary digital space available to companies. Now, social media is constantly evolving. Not so long ago, MySpace seemed to be the only site that was available but this has quickly been overtaken with the likes of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, You Tube, TikTok, Snapchat, WhatsApp and Pinterest among many that are easily available to the general public. There’ll be many more derivatives of these sites to follow too in coming years and each will bring their own unique selling point.

The ‘new kid on the block’, perhaps most significant in terms of marketing, is undoubtedly ChatGPT. Artificial Intelligence (or AI) has been around for a while but the speed in which it has developed is frightening. I remember watching a film called ‘I,Robot’ which seemed to be a futuristic experiment that could never really be replicated in real life. Well the future is here! Many websites already have simplified versions of AI in the form of chatbots, who answer basic questions on behalf of the business who deployed them. With the dawning of ChatGPT, there is now huge potential for these to be able to solve most of the problems that the user has. Google and Bing have swiftly launched their own counterparts to ChatGPT and it’s wise to expect newer and more impressive versions to follow soon.

What does ChatGPT do? In the simplest terms, ChatGPT takes on the conversational skills of a person to solve a problem for the user. It uses learnings from all it’s previous conversations to improve the responses which ensures that it is always developing.

However, the data set that it uses currently only goes up to, and includes, 2021, and so there are errors on occasion. The site also does not have live access to the internet and so some of the results can be slightly outdated. The technology, while impressive, is somewhat basic and crude and it might not use the voice and tone that you would expect.

For example, this is the response that was generated when I asked how to book tickets.

However, as a prototype for a tool, the potential is enormous and will undoubtedly get bigger and better.  

Will AI take over the future of horse racing?

I decided to ask ChatGPT just that. The response is here

While the algorithms are developing rapidly, there is still no way to predict what will win the 6.30pm at Ponte next week and so, from that point of view, human input will always be required. They’re unlikely to ever be able to ride or train a horse and put tactics in to play either. However, from a Clerking perspective, the Going Stick that is currently widely in use offers the first glimpse of technology in determining the state of the ground. It’s not such a huge leap of faith to imagine that one day in the future, AI will be used in turf care.

For now, the human touch is still required. But the future is not far away.

Welcome to another blog from the team at Pontefract Racecourse.

Every fortnight, someone from the team will share their thoughts for your entertainment (or otherwise!):

• Managing Director, Norman Gundill with his trusty PA, Caroline who also looks after the hospitality,
• Accounts Manager, Nicola,
• Admin manager, Carol,
• Marketing exec, Alexia, and,
• Chief Operating Officer, Richard (who is writing today’s blog)

The Music Night Countdown

The countdown is well and truly on for the first of our music nights at Ponte (26^th May).

It’s a busy, but slightly stressful, time for the team as we make sure that everything is in place. All Racecourses approach their music events from different viewpoints. But for us, with strict budget constraints, we try and cut out as many third parties as possible and, where we can, we deal directly with the artist(e)’s management team, arrange the stage directly with Event Equipment Hire and manage the sound and lighting production with John who knows the layout of the Racecourse well and knows the type of show that the audience respond to.

There is a huge amount of planning and preparation that goes on behind the scenes – with additional toilet facilities, bar marquees, extra furniture, new catering outlets, security planning meetings, back up generators, medical and veterinary requirements etc – no stone is left unturned.

Purist racegoers are often critical of racecourses who stage music events but, for us, we think that they provide a great way to introduce a new crowd to Pontefract. We’re very lucky to be so well supported by racegoers throughout Yorkshire and we want to be able to showcase the racecourse as both a corporate and a social venue so that these racegoers have us in mind when they are looking for options for days out with their family, or for somewhere to go with work colleagues or a destination that they might consider entertaining clients.  By seeing the Racecourse host a music act, we hope that they might return to us at a later date with their friends. But the racing should always be the focus of the event. At Pontefract, it is not by accident that the music forms an arena around the Parade Ring where the equine stars take centre stage. When marketing the racecourse, I have always believed that no matter what the theme of the day, we should arrange attractions for the customer but must always keep the horse at the very heart of everything we do. You cannot get away from the main event stars, the horses, when you attend a music night with us.

As a child of the 80s, it will come as no surprise that I have quite a big part to play when it comes to choosing the musical choices each year! We’ve been lucky to welcome some really incredible acts over the years – Cheryl, Mike & Jay (formerly of Bucks Fizz), Bananarama, Belinda Carlisle, Billy Ocean and, last year, Sister Sledge. And this year it’s the turn of Kim Wilde. The youngest member of our team, Alexia, nods her head politely when we talk about the performers, most of whom were topping the charts well before she was born. It’ll be Alexia’s first experience of a music night at Pontefract – as a child of the 00s, perhaps we’ll let her choose the artists for 2024!

Welcome to another blog from the team at Pontefract Racecourse.

Every fortnight, someone from the team will share their thoughts for your entertainment (or otherwise!):

• Managing Director, Norman Gundill with his trusty PA, Caroline who also looks after the hospitality,
• Accounts Manager, Nicola,
• Admin manager, Carol,
• Marketing exec, Alexia, and,
• Chief Operating Officer, Richard (who is writing today’s blog)

NATIONAL HORSERACING COLLEGE CHARITY DAY AT PONTEFRACT

Wednesday 3^rd May marked the 34^th running of the National Horseracing College Charity Day at Pontefract.

The National Horseracing College , based just outside Doncaster, was set up in 1984 and provides a range of courses at all levels for people who are looking at the horseracing industry as a future career. It also offers those currently in the business the chance to develop their qualifications and skills and provides the ideal opportunity to nurture the grass roots and future of the sport. On the 3^rd May, we welcome several of the learners and instructors to the course to gain some hands on experience of a day at the races. Under the brilliant leadership of the Chief Executive, Colonel Padgett, there is no better place to learn for those who are wanting to get involved in the racing industry.

Fittingly, the Apprentices kicked proceedings off with the 3^rd round of the Go Racing In Yorkshire Future Stars series. It was a special race in more ways than one with Reigning Profit making a little bit of Ponte history by becoming the first horse to win consecutive races at the track! He had won the final race at the previous race meeting and followed up in some style under Christian Howarth for trainer Ruth Carr . Once again, he was bounced out of the stalls and made all the running to win, going away, by 2 lengths. Have we got another Ponte specialist on our hands?

On the same card, there was finally something for Leeds United fans to cheer about when The Cookstown Cafu, who is named after Leeds United fan favourite Stuart Dallas, followed up his recent win at Redcar. Kevin Ryan’s winner looks as though he’s definitely one who’ll be stepping up to the premier league.

It was also fantastic to welcome local artist, James Owen Thomas back to Pontefract. James had been commissioned by the Racecourse to create 4 pieces of artwork for a recycling campaign in 2019, using materials that were destined for the bin. Using old racecourse badges, brochures and tickets etc, he created some wonderful artwork that can be seen at the Racecourse on a raceday.

As part of the celebrations for the Coronation of King Charles III, Great British Racing had commissioned a piece by James to highlight the Royal Family’s long standing engagement with the sport. One of the King’s big passions is sustainability, meaning that there was a fantastic opportunity for James to be involved in such a momentous occasion. We were honoured that James chose to unveil his new artwork at Pontefract and it was wonderful to welcome him and his family back to the course. His incredible art can be seen in Pateley Bridge, with this particular piece touring round a number of racecourses in the coming months.

Welcome to another blog from the team at Pontefract Racecourse.

Every fortnight, someone from the team will share their thoughts for your entertainment (or otherwise!):

• Managing Director, Norman Gundill with his trusty PA, Caroline who also looks after the hospitality,
• Accounts Manager, Nicola,
• Admin manager, Carol,
• Marketing exec, Alexia, and,
• Chief Operating Officer, Richard (who is writing today’s blog)

The lead up to the first race meeting of the year is always a hectic time. But being busy brings out the best in the team at Ponte and I couldn’t be prouder of the way that the whole team has knuckled down to get everything done and the place looking ship shape for the new season.

It’s a credit to the team just how much they’ve done in the last two weeks. Tackling decorating schemes in the toilets and finishing off improvement works to all the facilities for those with special accessibility requirements has taken a herculean effort but everything looks great ahead of racing on the 11^th April.

The works to the accessible viewing areas and toilets has all been done in house by the Groundstaff team. Jacob and Mandy from Live Tourism carried out an assessment on the Racecourse at the end of 2022 and gave us so many ideas as to how we could make big improvements with some small steps. We’ve revamped all the accessible toilet areas, painting walls and grab rails in contrasting colours, installing mirrors, privacy areas and new RADAR keys. The viewing areas have all been enlarged, concreted and the access to them has been upgraded.

We’ve also installed Hearing Loops in a number of areas and, with the help of Go Racing in Yorkshire installed sunflower benches in quiet spots around the Racecourse to enable those who need a little bit of peace and quiet, to have the space they require.  

We’re not the biggest Racecourse in the country, we don’t have the biggest team and we certainly don’t have the biggest budgets. But we have success. And the reason we have that is the sense of belonging, the camaraderie and the desire to get things done. A sense of pride and the will to succeed.

As everyone enjoys the long Bank Holiday, we’d like to give a massive shout out to Racing Staff from every corner of the industry up and down the country who work such unsociable hours: early mornings, late nights, Bank Holidays and weekends – they’re all the same. There’s a great support network via Racing Welfare .

There are times when it feels like the job takes over. And that’s when you need your racing family – it’s a tight bond but it means that we have a great sport.

Welcome to another blog from the team at Pontefract Racecourse.

Every fortnight, someone from the team will share their thoughts for your entertainment (or otherwise!):

• Managing Director, Norman Gundill with his trusty PA, Caroline who also looks after the hospitality,
• Accounts Manager, Nicola,
• Admin manager, Carol,
• Marketing exec, Alexia, and,
• Chief Operating Officer, Richard (who is writing today’s blog)

It’s been a busy but rewarding week at Ponte Towers.

We view Staff Training as one of the most essential parts of our business and we spent much of Wednesday briefing existing, and new, raceday staff ahead of the start of the 2023 racing season.

For a Racecourse, the team of casual raceday staff can often be the first part of the racegoer journey on a day at the races and so it is imperative that the customer facing team know and understand both the layout of the Racecourse AND the brand and the core values of what Pontefract stand for. We want them to embrace the true Yorkshire spirit that the Racecourse embodies and exude Yorkshire hospitality from the moment that customers arrive.

We want our Staff to feel valued and a full part of the Pontefract family. We want them to know how we’ve responded to their feedback from last season, what improvements we’ve made to make their roles easier as well as keep them up to date with the latest health and safety guidance and ‘hot topics’ that they may need to address.

Inspection reports from the like of AA , Visit England and Live Tourism form a vital part of our Staff training and help us to build a better team to ensure that we can offer the best possible service to our racegoers.

No good staff training day is complete without a tour of the Racecourse to maximise orientation knowledge but by far the most important part is a good catch with their friends and colleagues over a big lunch – thanks to Jo and Andy at Huggamug for providing an incredible spread!

From Staff Training on Wednesday to our ‘Welcome to 2023’ Pre Season Launch on Thursday – no rest for the wicked.

There was an extensive guest list with invitees from across the industry (ROA, PJA, owners, trainers, sponsors, Press) and it was great to see such a brilliant turnout to learn about some of the fantastic events we have in store in 2023.

We also handed out a few very special awards for the first time too. Most people know that we like to do things the ‘Ponte’ way and so there was never going to be recognition of those who receive it regularly. Instead, we wanted to highlight some of our true Ponte heroes and Flint Hill , Round The Island, Corinthia Knight and Mr Orange were very worthy recipients. While the last named is enjoying a long and happy retirement, the first three will reportedly be back in action in April at Ponte. We shouldn’t have favourites, but we’ll definitely be cheering them on!  

Welcome to the second blog from the team at Pontefract Racecourse.

Every fortnight, someone from the team will share their thoughts for your entertainment (or otherwise!):

• Managing Director, Norman Gundill with his trusty PA, Caroline who also looks after the hospitality,
• Accounts Manager, Nicola,
• Admin manager, Carol,
• Marketing exec, Alexia and,
• Chief Operating Officer, Richard, who is writing this blog.

Value on Racecourses – 22 December 2022

Much has been published about pricing at British Racecourses: from the cost of entry, to the cost of food and drink once you’re inside the course – indeed, the Racing Post published their Racecourse Prices Index with visits around the courses undertaken in 2022.

The ‘Cost of Living Crisis’ is an overused phrase but is a very real concept and it has been looming large on the horizon for a few months now. It’s something that we’re painfully aware of – from a business perspective, from a personal perspective and from the point of view of our customers.

So how do we address it? How do we keep racing as cost effective as possible, offering genuine value, while still managing the increasing tariffs that are being directed towards us? 

It’s a fine balance. We hope we’re on the right lines but, as 2023 dawns, we’ll need to keep an eye on how the year progresses.

We want everyone to feel they are getting value:

1. We recognise the different costs in staging race meetings.
   A midweek Tuesday afternoon does not cost as much to stage as, for example, a Friday evening or a Sunday when there are additional considerations and attractions.
   So we’ve introduced differential costs.
   This means that over 80% of the race meetings in 2023 will cost less, or the same, than in 2022.

• 

2. We put on great early bird offers.
I’ve not been to as many Two Circles workshops as I have without learning the mantra that the best price should be the first price – ‘The earlier you book, the cheaper it is!’

And it works! Start the sales curve early! The customer saves and we get income at a time of year when we would not normally have any, helping us to spread the annual costs.

3. We offer value packages.
We’ve teamed up with our catering partner to offer what we think are some great packages. We’ve got a new offering which I think gives exceptional value.
We also got the opportunity to make a fun video advert to sit alongside the promotion which is always an added bonus!
It’s really important to us to have a ‘Yorkshire’ voice in everything we do. Did someone say Flat Caps and Whippets? Of course…

4. Give back to the regulars
It sounds like a clichéd line, but we are incredibly grateful for those who choose to spend their hard earned cash at Ponte and so there’s a loyalty card, concessions for students and OAPs as well as free entry for different customer groups on a variety of days.  

• 

Racecourse caterers come in for a fair amount of stick and, to be honest, they are fighting a losing battle most of the time. Rising staff costs, staff shortages, brewery increases, rising food prices – who’d be a caterer?

We had the first of our pricing meetings for 2023 last week. They’re long, involved, difficult meetings and it can be a battle.

Customers often tell us they can get their pint at ‘their local’ much cheaper. And it’s true – they absolutely can. What is sometimes overlooked is that ‘their local’ doesn’t move the travelling catering circus in and out for just 16 times a year – they operate 365 days a year – and the costs of set up and clearing up are huge.

It’s not that I’m trying to defend them – some of the prices that are put forward at early meetings are over the top. We take quite a unique viewpoint in that we subsidise some items so that the entry level price to the customer is fair.  It’s important to try and wear the customer’s shoes and think about times when you’ve felt taken advantage of as a customer and avoid that at all costs.

Anyway, speaking of food and drink, it’s Christmas! So, to end, here’s our glorious Carol to set the Christmas mood.

Have a great Christmas and New Year and we’ll see you on the other side when Alexia will be writing her first blog!

 

Welcome to the first official blog from the team at Pontefract Racecourse.

Every fortnight, someone from the team will share their thoughts for your entertainment (or otherwise!). Firstly, let me introduce the Admin team:

• Managing Director, Norman Gundill with his trusty PA, Caroline who also looks after the hospitality,
• Accounts Manager, Nicola,
• Admin manager, Carol,
• Marketing exec, Alexia and,
• Chief Operating Officer, Richard, who is writing the first blog.

Ponte Pride – 9 December 2022

A long time ago, back in November 2019, in a world before Covid was even a thing, the team at Ponte were incredibly honoured to be crowned the Champion Racecourse at the Racecourse Association Showcase Awards hosted by the reigning champions, Hamilton.

For obvious reasons, we’ve not been able to host the event since until our chance finally came round on 10^th November this year.

With around 250 delegates due to be in attendance, we set to creating a Showcase Event that was truly befitting of Ponte, making sure that the gathered masses, many of whom had not been to Pontefract before, were truly welcomed into our racing world with our brand and Yorkshire heritage dominant in every aspect of the event.

For those that have not been to Ponte before, the logistics of organising an event for 250 people on the site are challenging to say the least. We do not have a conference or restaurant facility large enough to seat this size of party , and, with the majority of the site on a pronounced slope, options for a marquee were limited. The only way round the problems was to site a marquee on the track itself, just beyond the winning post. But with no services close by, we had to arrange gas, electric and water as well.

What seemed like a great idea in November ’19, suddenly seemed to be something of a mission impossible.

But we don’t like to be beaten and the team pulled together in the most incredible way. The marquee company, our catering team, our fantastic groundstaff, the office team and the wonderful marketing team from the RCA left no stone unturned.

Marquees were put up, walkways were covered, red carpet was laid, walls and woodwork were repainted, lawns were manicured, bathrooms were given a makeover and 250 Yorkshire goodie bags were packed. I cannot begin to tell you how immensely proud I was of the whole team of pulling off such an impressive and seamless event.

As is often the case, beneath the elegant exterior of the graceful swan, there was a whole lot going on under the surface to ensure that everything went smoothly. The delegates didn’t see that the generator failed straight after the seminar section of the afternoon meaning our electrician was poised by a replacement generator for 4 hours solid! They didn’t see the industrial heater breakdown meaning one of the team needed to re-set it every 4 or 5 minutes. They didn’t see the aftermath the morning after. But that is what makes an event great I guess – a brilliant team, pulling together to ensure that the customer has a great experience.

To win two awards on the night was absolutely the icing on the cake – the Marketing Award for our ‘Silver Surfers and OAP Free Day’ Campaign and the Food & Beverage Award for our amazing on site café, Huggamug.

The event gave us two weeks of apprehension and, at times, terror, but was one of the most brilliant nights we’ve had. All down to teamwork and hard graft.

All the best to the new Showcase Champions, Aintree. We can’t wait to celebrate with you in 2023!