Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Coloroll to sponsor National Hunt Meetings at Lingfield Park and Royal Windsor

Arena Leisure, owners of both Royal Windsor and Lingfield Park, are delighted to welcome Coloroll as title sponsors of all their National Hunt fixtures during October and November, with a value in total prize money of £335,500. The meetings are a mixture of relocated fixtures from Ascot during their major redevelopment project and scheduled meetings.

Coloroll is part of the CWV Group of companies which has an extensive portfolio of home interior brands. Household names within the group include Wilman Interiors, Jeff Banks' Ports Of Call, Vymura, Anaglypta and Crown wallcoverings.

David Williams, Managing Director for CW Textiles said: "We have recently launched stunning new products within the group and saw this as an ideal opportunity to raise the profile of our brands to a nationwide audience. We are looking forward to attending the National Hunt meetings and entertaining many of our valued clients."

The five days of Coloroll national hunt meetings include Saturday 30th October and Thursday 11th November at Lingfield Park. These are followed by a two-day relocated fixture from neighbouring Ascot to Royal Windsor on Friday and Saturday 19th & 20th November, marking the first jump meeting at the track for 5 years. Coloroll then return to Lingfield Park on Wednesday 24th November.

Jeff Banks, fashion expert for the BBC at Royal Ascot, is also attending one of the Windsor meetings to support his Ports Of Call' brand, and will no doubt be making comments about the winter fashions on show!

Royal Windsor Racecourse Prepares for Jump Racing

The last flat meeting of the season at Windsor took place on Monday 11th October and, with four fence bases stuffed with uncut birch already in place, the groundstaff are cracking on with the fence building in preparation for the first of the two-day meetings on Friday and Saturday 19th & 20th November.

Most of the fences and hurdles will be borrowed from Worcester which ends its summer jump campaign on 13th October. There will be nine fences in total on the figure of eight course.

Russell Knight, the Head Groundsman has worked at the Thames side course for over 30 years, said that he hadn't expected to be building fences again at Windsor!

He is, however, delighted to see jumping returns albeit temporarily and has many happy memories of some very well-known horses running at Windsor such as the Queen Mother's Special Cargo, Grand National winners Rhyme n' Reason, Jay Trump and Anglo. His favourite memory is when Sea Pigeon beat Comedy of Errors by a short head in the late seventies.

Clerk of the course and general manager David Mackinnon said: "It is very exiting for Windsor to be staging these Ascot transferred fixtures. We are especially delighted to be staging a Grade 1 race at Royal Windsor for the first time ever at the December meeting - The Long Walk Hurdle' has been moved from Friday to Saturday. This high profile two-day Christmas meeting carries total prize money of over £230,000."

BETTER DAYS HOPING FOR A RUN IN WIGAN CHASE

Charlie Mann, trainer of Emperor’s Guest, commented: “I think the Order of Merit is a great idea and would love to have a go at winning it and hopefully we will have a couple of suitable horses. Any incentive like the Order of Merit is worth considering, especially with the stable staff incentive. Emperor’s Guest came from Paddy Mullins last year and will school tomorrow. We will make a decision on Friday as to which race he goes for, some cut in the ground would suit.”

Sue Smith, trainer of Better Days, commented: “At the moment we are out of the handicap but if we went up in the handicap we would be an intended runner. Good to soft ground would be fine for him and the horse is very well in himself. I think the Order of Merit is a great incentive and we should be encouraged to run our best horses in the top races. There is nothing like good competition.”

A huge prize of at least £200,000 awaits the Order of Merit Champion, the horse earning the most performance-related points from every major race in the 2004/05 Winter Jump Season.

This ground-breaking initiative for Jumping offers £200,000 for the overall champion plus £50,000 for the Top Chaser and £50,000 for the Top Hurdler to support the main award, providing valuable recognition of high ability, regular participation and consistent achievement.

Jointly funded by the British Horseracing Board and participating racecourses, the Order of Merit emanates from the recent industry-wide Jump Racing Review. It aims to raise the level of competition within the Jump Pattern by encouraging the top horses to run in the best races more frequently and to enhance further the prestige of Jump Racing in Britain.

BREEDERS' CUP PRE-ENTRY ODDS

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