Flat out for the season at Ripon

THE first race meeting of the 2008 flat season at Ripon, takes place next week (Thursday April 17th) and organisers are pulling out all the stops to offer ‘added value’ to their race meetings, following the success of last year’s first Rock at the Races event.

In 2008 music will feature at all the evening, weekend and Bank Holiday fixtures. Two meetings are dubbed Rock at the Races, on 9th May and 4th June, while Madness tribute band, Badness, features after racing on Ladies Day. These free concerts are included in the ticket price for the day and evening’s racing.

With an extra fixture at Ripon this year, the season includes 15 days’ racing. For the first time the course has a Friday evening fixture, on 9th May, getting the weekend off to a flying start with racing from 5.55pm followed by the first of the season’s free concerts starting at 9.30pm.

Later in June, Ripon’s annual Ladies Day on Thursday 19th promises to be extra special, with tickets selling fast for a luxury luncheon package including an afternoon’s racing and fashion shows, with raffle in aid of Cancer Research UK. The day’s events include the traditional Best Dressed Lady competition, this year sponsored by James Brindley of Harrogate.

Known as Yorkshire’s Garden Racecourse, Ripon is a popular, family-owned course, with a picturesque and compact layout which makes it a great favourite with families. Racing at Ripon is always free for children accompanied by an adult and there are plenty of weekend and Bank Holiday fixtures in the forthcoming season which are fun for all the family. Monday 6th August is made extra special for the little ones as the Children’s Day meeting, featuring free ice cream, face painting and a host of children’s rides and fun inflatables in the course enclosure.

The gates open for Thursday’s opening meeting at 12.10pm and the first race, a contest for 2-year old’s, is scheduled to begin at 2.10pm. Race-goers can follow all of the Ripon action close-up on the course’s permanent giant screen along with coverage of the day’s other racing from Newmarket and Cheltenham.

For more details of racing this season at Ripon, visit www.ripon-races.co.uk or call the racecourse office on 01765 602156.