Fashion and racing combine at Pontefract’s annual Ladies’ Day on Wednesday (August 7); a seven-race programme which begins at 2-00 p.m. with a handicap contest for gentleman amateur riders.
There’s a free buttonhole and glass of bubbly for the first 500 ladies into the Premier Enclosure, while bookings are being taken for the various Ladies Day packages.
The feature race of the afternoon is a handicap contest over one mile and a half offering prize money of £15,000. Three-year-old sprinters take part in the final race, The Keith Hammill Memorial Handicap Stakes over six furlongs. Keith’s son, Richard, is the assistant manager and clerk of the course at Pontefract. Two-year-olds are catered for in The Family & Friends Of Francis Hamilton Memorial Maiden Stakes, a race also supported by The European Breeders’ Fund, while Big Fellas Nightclub of Pontefract return to support a race.
This season’s renewal of The Chaplins Club Handicap Stakes (five furlongs) remembers one of the north’s most remarkable sprinters, whose victory at this equivalent meeting in 1988 was incredibly his seventh win in 18 days and his second in less than 24 hours, having been successful at Ayr the previous evening! Trained at Stillington by the late David Chapman, Chaplins Club carried the colours of Peter Savill, former chairman of the then British Horseracing Board, and who provided a challenge trophy – depicting Charlie Chaplin – for the race.
‘Golden Oldies’ have their opportunity in The Matty Bown Veterans Handicap Stakes – a contest over one mile for six-year-olds and upwards. This race remembers a former employee of the racecourse, who worked at Pontefract before, during and after the Second World War.
There’s a Best-Dressed Lady competition during the afternoon, with prizes to be won including a VIP trip to Napoleon’s Casino in Leeds along with an overnight stay meal at Rogerthorpe Manor Hotel; vouchers from bespoke designers ‘Poshfrox’; a Mercedes A Class for the day, a meal at The Grange Hotel in York; gym membership at the new Fitness Flex gym; a two-night stay at the luxury Sands Resort near Scarborough, while each finalist receives a goodie bag.
Wednesday’s winner will also have automatic entry into the Grand Final of the ‘Best-Dressed Lady Racegoer in Yorkshire’ competition, held at Doncaster racecourse in October, which is the culmination of a special competition linking the individual ‘Ladies Days’ on the Yorkshire racecourses this year. She will then have the chance to win a luxury prize for two at the Best Western Premier Mount Pleasant Hotel near Doncaster, along with a £500 fashion voucher from Yasmine of Bawtry and Epworth and a diamond pendant valued at £2,500 courtesy of lovevintagediamonds.com.
The giant screen, situated opposite the main stands will assist racegoers in following all of the action.