FANTASTIC TOTESPORT FESTIVAL AT - JOHN QUINN RUNS FANTASY BELIEVER IN £50,000 totesport HERITAGE HANDICAP - FAMILY FUN DAY ON SUNDAY, JULY 1
Royal Windsor Racecourse stages the highlight of its popular summer racing season, the totesport Festival Weekend, from Saturday, June 30, through to Monday July 2, 2007.
The totesport Festival Weekend is a fantastic three-day celebration of Flat racing, sponsored for the second year by one of the UK's principal betting organisations - totesport.
Saturday’s high-quality card features the £50,000 totepool Stakes (3.40pm) over six furlongs and the £26,000 Listed totepool Midsummer Stakes (3.05pm) over an extended mile.
The top-class Saeed bin Suroor-trained Librettist took last year’s renewal of the Listed totepool Midsummer Stakes under Frankie Dettori before going on to land France’s top mile races, the Group One Prix du Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard Jacques le Marois and the Group One Prix du Moulin de Longchamp for the Maktoum family’s Godolphin operation.
A total of eight have been declared for the totepool Stakes, including Godolphin’s Winged Cupid, who will be making his first racecourse appearance since finishing runner-up in the 2005 Group One Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster. The Mark Tompkins-trained Babodana, winner of the Lincoln Handicap at Doncaster in 2004, should appreciate the recent rain while Tell, trained by John Dunlop, is having his first run in Britain since running in Dubai over the winter months. Vanderlin, a Grade Two winner in the USA two years ago, also takes his chance along with the William Haggas-trained Pearl’s Girl, who has always been held in high regard. The one three-year-old in the mile contest is Massive, who comes into the race having landed the Listed Heron Stakes at Sandown on his latest appearance.
Saturday’s valuable £50,000 totesport Heritage Handicap over six furlongs has attracted a maximum field of 16, including 2006 Portland Handicap hero Fantasy Believer, who heads the field with top weight of 9st 10lb.
The John Quinn-trained nine-year-old also took a valuable handicap at Goodwood and the Listed Rous Stakes at Newmarket last term and has shown in his two most recent starts at Epsom and Musselburgh in June that he is returning to peak form.
Trainer John Quinn reported today: “Fantasy Believer is in good heart and is a definite runner. He’d like the ground to dry out a bit but he’s in very good form. I don’t think the going will be too bad and he’s won on good to soft. His preference is for better going but he goes on all ground.
“His programme tends to map itself as he comes into his own in the middle of the summer and he likes Goodwood. He likes Ayr as well, so we’ll try and gear plans around when he’s at his best.”
The tremendous weekend of racing, fun and family entertainment starts on Saturday, June 30, when the gates open at 12.30pm prior to the first race at 2.30pm. Sunday's action on the track commences at 2.30pm.
Sunday, July 1, is also Royal Windsor Racecourse's second Family Fun Day of the year and the feast of colourful entertainment includes face painting, bouncy castles, pony rides and a pet zoo, while the more adventurous youngsters can tackle the thrills of a variety of obstacle courses, which add to the excitement of the day.
Sunday’s competitive six-race card features the £20,000 EBF totepool Fillies’ Conditions Stakes (4pm) for two-year-olds over five furlongs, which has attracted a high quality entry, including Starlit Sands and Cake, who were second and fifth respectively in the Group Three Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 20.
Also on the programme is the £18,000 totequadpot Handicap (3.30pm) over 10 furlongs.
Children aged 16 and under gain free entry, while adult tickets start from just £7. Savings of up to £4 per person can be made by advance booking tickets online at www.windsor-racecourse.co.uk
The Festival concludes on Monday, July 2, with one of Royal Windsor’s ever-popular evening race fixtures, starting at 6.40pm. The riverside racecourse has restaurants and bars guaranteed to meet every taste and the perfect summer evening can be rounded off at leisure, sampling perennial favourite Pimms on the Paddock Lawn.
The feature contest of Monday’s six-race card is the £10,000 totesport.com Handicap (7.40pm) over six furlongs
Lucy Dickson, Commercial Manager at Royal Windsor Racecourse, said: "We're delighted that totesport is sponsoring our second Festival Weekend and hope that people will enjoy the three days of entertainment and hopefully back a few winners!
“Royal Windsor Racecourse attracts thousands of visitors each week - from royalty and celebrities to people who want to experience something different with their family and friends. We're here - where are you?"
ABOUT ROYAL WINDSOR RACECOURSE
For over 140 years Royal Windsor Racecourse has been entertaining royalty, celebrities and visitors wanting a unique blend of royal heritage and intimate atmosphere in an unbeatable social setting.
The only figure-of-eight Flat racecourse in the UK, Royal Windsor Racecourse is situated in 165 beautiful acres on an island in the River Thames. The unbeatable facilities and the dedicated team are guaranteed to exceed your expectations whether you are planning a private celebration, a corporate function or a social event with friends and family.
In 2006, Royal Windsor Racecourse attracted over 135,000 visitors. The racecourse is located in the heart of historic Windsor near the M4 and M25 and easily accessible by road, train, helicopter or boat.
ENHANCED MARES' PATTERN AND LISTED RACE PROGRAMME DELIVERS SIGNIFICANT BENEFIT TO BREEDERS
The British Horseracing Board today confirms the formation of six new Mares' Pattern and Listed races, with a total value of £320,000, which have been designed to reflect the increasing number of mares racing in Britain, strengthen Black Type opportunities for mares' within the Pattern, and encourage owners and trainers to keep campaigning them at the top level.
Of the new races, the flagship will be a Grade 2 mares' hurdle race on totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup day at The Festival, worth £100,000. The three new Grade 2 races will provide the backbone of the programme, increasing the overall number of Black Type mares' races in Britain to eleven. Three new Listed races are also being created.
Discussed at length by the BHB's Jump Racing Committee and approved by the BHB's Race Planning Committee, the new races allow the best mares to run for Black Type against their own sex, without the need to run in handicaps. It is hoped that they will repeat the success of a similar development which was put in place as part of a European-wide initiative on the Flat three seasons ago.
The six new races are as follows:
2 mile Listed hurdle in November at Wetherby
2 mile 5 furlong Listed hurdle in November at Kempton Park
2 mile 4 furlong Listed hurdle in January at Sandown Park
3 mile Grade 2 hurdle in January at Ascot
2 mile Grade 2 hurdle in January at Doncaster
2 mile 4 ½ furlong Grade 2 hurdle in March at Cheltenham
In keeping with the system used to assess Flat Pattern and Listed races, a 7lb lower parameter will be applied to all mares' only contests and the mares allowance of 7lb will be added to the rating of any mare featuring subsequently in any Open Pattern races.
Thoroughbred Breeders' Association National Hunt Committee Chairman Toby Balding said "This is a welcome opportunity for the breeding industry and mares in particular, and hopefully will encourage the number of mares coming into training and consequently see them qualify for these valuable races."
BHB Racing Manager Stuart Middleton said: "Owner and breeders were telling us that they would be far more likely to keep their better mares in training for longer, if non-handicap Black Type opportunities were programmed. With greater strength in depth amongst the current crop of mares, we believe the time is right to attempt to capitalise on this for the good of the whole industry."
The current mares' races within the British Jump Pattern are:
2 mile ½ furlong Listed NHF race in March at Sandown Park
2 mile 6 ½ furlong Listed novice chase in March at Newbury
2 mile 5 furlong Listed novice hurdle in March at Newbury
2 mile 1 furlong Listed NHF race in April at Aintree
2 mile 5 ½ furlong Listed hurdle in April at Cheltenham
RACING MUST TAKE THE TOTE OPPORTUNITY, SAYS ROA PRESIDENT
HORSE racing has no alternative but to try and buy the Tote, new ROA President Paul Dixon told the association’s annual general meeting today (THURSDAY 28 JUNE).
To fail to do so would result in the industry losing “a huge opportunity to influence the future finances of the sport”.
The inevitable consequence would be that the Tote would be sold to a bookmaker.
Racing had to accept that it would have to pay the full market price, said Mr Dixon as he took over the ROA presidency. “The barrier of State Aid appears impenetrable,” he concluded.
Could the Government be successfully challenged over its right to sell the Tote? “From all the legal opinion I have seen, I doubt it,” said Mr Dixon.
As to whether the business, once purchased by the racing consortium of owners, racecourses, Tote management and Lloyds Bank, would be viable, he said: “Nobody is disputing that it is a big ask but, as a businessman, my judgement is that it can be done.”
The ROA President said the tough, Government-imposed Non-Disclosure Agreements restricted public discussions of the issues, but he expected these would be relaxed soon.
In his speech, he questioned the bookmakers’ tactics in their dispute with Turf TV which is challenging the bookmaker-owned monopoly of SIS and the BAGS service of broadcasting pictures into betting shops.
“Let there by no doubt that this dispute has important consequences for owners,” said Mr Dixon. “The bookmakers are doing their level best to link the dispute to the Levy.
“They are arguing that, because they will be forced to buy in two picture services at a greater cost, this should in some way reflect on what they pay to the Levy.
“I say this is rubbish. The Levy has nothing to do with their costs; it is paid on their gross profits on British racing.”
While he believed that racing’s case on the Levy was watertight, he added: “History has taught us about the ingenuity of bookmakers when their backs are against the wall and there will be nothing safe about the unfolding events over the next year.”
He was, nevertheless, keen to acknowledge the future benefits that would spring from a better relationship between racing and bookmakers, but underlined the “madness” of a situation where the sport answered every demand of bookmaker and racecourse so that it resulted in ever more thinly spread levels of prize-money.
“As an owner of more than 40 horses, my natural instincts are to want as many running opportunities as I can get,” he said. “Such are the sentiments of most owners, but I believe the time has come to say enough is enough. Racing should be prepared only to continue to load on fixture after fixture if there is a corresponding increase in what the betting industry is prepared to pay.”
For old articles (from 1st March 2000) go to the Newslink
Archive
