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.
As the busy Summer period of racing comes to a close, we start to gear up to the final four meetings of the year. While the evenings and weekend fixtures are done for 2024, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t still a lot to look forward to – in fact, there is still a 2yo Listed race to come and almost £350,000 worth of prize money on offer!
The highlight of the Autumn programme is our season finale on Monday 21st October. Sadly, Storm Babet prevented the fixture taking place in 2023 but, all being well, we’ll have some fantastic action on the track to finish the season.
Apologies for being a bit of a racing anorak, but the EBF Silver Tankard Stakes is one of my favourite races of the year at Ponte and has a rich history with both Westover and Manuela De Vega in recent years competing before hitting the frame in the Derby and Oaks the following year. The European Breeders Fund do a huge amount for racing and we are eternally grateful for the support that they give us a Ponte. It’s been a while since we’ve had a Derby or Oaks winner – High-Rise was the last – but there’s always some talent on show. Before the abandonment last year, Aidan O’Brien had 5 entries to target the race with! Fingers crossed the weather plays its part this year and we get to witness some more potential future stars.
We’ve made a conscious decision to try and raise the calibre and profile of the racing at the season finale this year. And so, to support the Listed race, we have a Class 2 Fillies Handicap worth £30k and the £27k Class 2 Phil Bull Trophy for the Stayers. There’s now a total of over £130,000 in prize money at this race meeting alone. The two supporting races have again had some superb winners – Unequal Love won the handicap in 2023 before winning the Wokingham this year, and Wise Eagle was the last horse to take the Phil Bull. He ran in the Ascot Gold Cup the year after! For those of you who don’t know, Phil Bull was a professional gambler, racehorse owners and published who founded Timeform.
We can now also start to look forward to 2025. The fixture list has recently been published and there is no material change to the look of the Ponte racing calendar for next year with our usual pattern of fixtures including 3 evening meetings (Friday 23rd May, Monday 9th June and Friday 18th July), 3 Sundays (22nd June, 27th July, 17th August) and Ladies Day on 6th August. Bookings for next year will go live on 1st December when, as always, the best deals are available. Make sure you set a reminder on your calendar as tickets are over 25% cheaper than on the day.
Now that we have the dates for 2025, we can also start to plan! Is there anything that you’d like to see at Pontefract next year? Do you have any thoughts on the bands that might perform? (within reason – we’re a small independent racecourse with limited budgets!) Would you like to see anything different at our Family Day race meetings? If you’ve got anything that you think might make a day at Pontefract even better, then please let us know by emailing us at info@pontefract-races.co.uk.