FEATURE FOCUS ON CHARITY
CHARITY BEGINS AT Cheltenham Discover more about Cheltenham Racecourse’s charity and community engagement
N o matter what event is being discussed by the senior management team at Cheltenham Racecourse, the question “Can we align this to a charity?” gets raised by someone in attendance. This is not something new, but the fact that it has become an integral part of the raceday planning process probably is. Charity and community sit, firmly, as a heading on every meeting agenda. Looking at the season ahead, nearly every time the racecourse turnstiles are opened to the public, there will be a good cause being assisted in one way or another. In fact, it doesn’t even need to be a raceday. In the heat of the summer, the racecourse lent itself well to being the hub for the Racing Welfare Great Cycling race. This 24-hour event saw a line-up of jockeys to rival any Festival race, with the likes of former champions AP McCoy, Richard Johnson and Harry Skelton swapping reins for handlebars. The event raised in excess of £100,000 and brought the great work of Racing Welfare to the attention of a lot of people.
Each year, Cheltenham Racecourse pieces together a charity plan that will help it focus the resources at its disposal in an attempt to ensure that the charities it engages with get the most out of their window of opportunity. Andre Klein, the Community Engagement Manager for the racecourse, explains why this has become necessary: “Every day, someone in our team seems to receive a request to assist a charitable cause. In most cases, it is just someone asking for tickets for a village fête or school fundraiser, but very often it is a large charity looking to ‘take over’ a raceday or use the venue in a major way. Every one of these approaches receives due consideration. We have a set of objectives, as well as parameters to work to, and can therefore plan to have the right resources allocated to better ensure success.” Cheltenham Racecourse, being part of the Jockey Club, needs to align itself with the Group’s charitable aspirations as well. To this end, it provides half-a-dozen executive boxes each year for the incredible Box4Kids/
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