CHEPSTOW Racecourse has announced a scheme to support local charities and ‘good causes’.

The Community Fund will offer grants of up to £250 per application to community groups and charitable organisations within a 10-mile radius of the racecourse.

Racecourses are part of the community and this scheme is designed to give a little bit back to charitable organisations and other good causes operating in our local area.

Throughout 2018, numerous charities benefitted from using Chepstow Racecourse to hold fundraising events. Some of the charities include Ty Hafan, Noah’s Ark, ABF the soldier’s charity, SSAFA, Velindre, Prostate Cymru, Bloodwise and the Injured Jockeys Fund.

The racecourse also gave away more than £6,000 worth of prizes for raffles and auctions to schools, charities, events and organisations during the year.

Do you have a community project you’d like our help with? For more information about the Community Fund or to receive a request form please call the racecourse office or email info@chepstow-racecourse.co.uk.

The two racecourses in South Wales have a new senior management team. Last year our parent company Arena Racing Company (ARC) purchased Ffos Las Racecourse near Llanelli and I was made Executive Director across both courses.

Between the two we will host a total of 51 race meetings in 2019 and a range of other events including festivals, running and cycling events and trade shows and exhibitions. We recently announced that both courses will have Madness playing live after racing this summer.

This number of events requires a strong team at both tracks and we have appointed a new General Manager at both venues. Caroline Williams becomes General Manager at Chepstow and Simon Rowlands has taken over the same role at Ffos Las.

Caroline has worked at Chepstow for seven years and prior to that held senior positions at Glamorgan Cricket Club and Bath Racecourse. Simon was previously Catering General Manager at Chepstow following a career in several other hospitality businesses. I’m delighted to be working with both.

This season’s Coral Welsh Grand National winner Elegant Escape had his first race since his Welsh National victory at Cheltenham on Saturday. He ran a great Cheltenham Gold Cup trial to finish a narrow second in the prestigious Cotswolds Chase behind Frodon. An extra quarter of a mile in the Gold Cup can only be in his favour and he is now around 20/1 for the big one on 15th March.

We’ve got a huge 237 entries for our race meeting on Friday, 1st February, more than any other track racing this week. We’re also continuing to see support from the biggest trainers, running some of their most promising horses. Having large field sizes and competitive racing makes for a good betting proposition and helps to attract racegoers, so this is great news for Chepstow.

Our next feature day at Chepstow Racecourse is Super Six Nations raceday on Saturday, 23rd February. We’ll have seven races plus live coverage of the Six Nations 3rd round games in our Wales vs England Fan Zone. We’ll show the France vs Scotland and Wales vs England matches and will also have a brilliant Tom Jones tribute performing before racing.