TURF TALK: Newbury glad to Help the Heroes
9:20am Saturday 12th December 2009 in Sport
FOLLOWING on the heels of the £15,000 raised by Swindon Town Football Club for the Help for Heroes charity, Newbury Racecourse has joined up with Tickets For Troops to offer Servicemen and women a number of free tickets to five popular race days in 2010.
Forty-five racecourses around Britain have agreed to participate in the initiative which aims to support the work of serving military personnel and veterans by offering free tickets to big events.
Applicants simply register at www.ticketsfortroops.org.uk and can then choose to make their booking from one of thousands of available events. For each booking a donation of just £1 is requested with all proceeds being donated to various Service charities.
Stephen Higgins, managing director of Newbury Racecourse, said: “With numerous British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force bases situated within easy reach of Newbury Racecourse we are delighted to support Tickets For Troops.
“This is a fantastic initiative as well as us being able to show a small token of our appreciation of the incredible work military personnel do for our country, it also provides them with the opportunity to enjoy a great sporting day out at the races.
“We are really looking forward to welcoming everyone who takes up the Tickets For Troops offer to Newbury and hope they have a fantastic and successful day.”
- RACEGOERS at Kempton’s all-weather meeting tomorrow will pay just £1 entrance fee with children under 16 admitted free.
Spokesman for the course, said: “We want to give an early Christmas present to our visitors and we have arranged plenty of seasonal related off course entertainment.”
The meeting gets under way with a two-year-old Maiden Stakes at 2.25pm that could be won by the Jeremy Noseda trained Passion Overflow.
Later in the afternoon local jockey George Baker could win the Claimer on board Shakalaka and in the last race on the card trainer Matt Salamans followers in the town will be looking for Fernando Torres to help with the Christmas expenses.
Jumping fans are catered for at Hereford where Well Mick trained at Stanton Fitzwarren by Jonathan de Giles and ridden by son Felix could be worth an each way interest in the totepool Handicap Chase.
There are plenty of entries for the jump meeting at Warwick, where the opening race, a Juvenile Hurdle, gets under way at 12.10pm.
Swindon jockey Wayne Hutchinson, who steered home impressive winner Veiled at Leicester for trainer Jeff Pearce, teams up with the trainer’s Nicky Nutjob and will be a popular choice to get backers off to a good start.
Later in the afternoon, Ammunition, the mount of Timmy Murphy could be worth an interest.
The all-weather meeting at Lingfield gets under way with an Apprentice Handicap providing new Beckhampton trainer Sam Davison with an each way chance with her charge Foxtrot Bravo.
Ogbourne trainer Peter Makin has a good record at Lingfield and runs Pan American in the two-year-old Maiden Auction Stakes. The mount of Fergus Sweeney, the youngster has been in the first four in all of his four races and deserves to get his head in front.
In the following race former Manton trainer John Gosden could go close with Fen Spirit, the mount of Robert Havlin.
The meeting at Kelso rounds off the Sunday action where the Nigel Twiston-Davies trained Jaunty Journey is a tentative selection in the four mile John Smith’s Scottish Borders National Handicap Chase.
