Thanks to the generosity of the racing community, Racing Welfare’s Covid-19 Emergency Appeal has reached a major milestone by surpassing the £250,000 mark.
Currently sitting at £252,223, the appeal seeks to raise £500k to make up for income lost following the cancellation of all of the charity’s spring and early summer fundraising events due to the pandemic.
The appeal was kick-started by Racing Welfare’s Furlong Factor prior to the resumption of racing, which combined with the NightIn4Nightout campaign to raise an incredible £50k. Since racing restarted, many of the sport’s businesses such as Betway, Racehorse Lotto and Hambleton Racing, have created innovative ways of raising funds for the charity. Support from across the racing community has also come for events such as the Royal Ascot Virtual Preview Evening, supported by Sporting Life, and Racing Welfare’s Best Turned Out series, which was backed by Betfair.
Whilst racing behind closed doors continues, racegoers are enjoying the action from home. In a normal year, around two million people would attend race meetings throughout the months of July, August and September. The remainder of the summer will bring with it some of racing’s biggest Flat fixtures, starting with Newmarket’s July Festival and continuing over the next few months with the likes of Glorious Goodwood, York’s Ebor Meeting and Doncaster’s St Leger fixture.
As racing fans continue to take part in these big race days from home, Racing Welfare is asking anyone who is able to help them reach the £500k total to do so by donating the ticket price for what would have been their day at the races this summer. The addition of Gift Aid means that for every £20 donated towards its Emergency Appeal, Racing Welfare will receive an extra £5. The charity will be on the look out for people showing their support for the campaign on social media, sharing and retweeting images of racing fans enjoying the sport from home whilst supporting Racing Welfare.
Racing Welfare Chief Executive, Dawn Goodfellow said: “The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been felt throughout the racing industry. For Racing Welfare the cancellation of many of our usual fundraising events has seen us face a huge income deficit at a time when our services have never been needed more. The generosity of the racing community in response to our Covid-19 Emergency Appeal has been truly inspiring and to be able to announce that we have passed the halfway mark of £250,000 is a huge boost.
It has been great to have racing back underway and on our screens and I am certainly looking forward to watching all the major summer festivals from home. If you will be doing the same, please consider donating to Racing Welfare. Your donations really do count and reaching our £500k target will enable us to continue supporting the workforce that make racing the wonderful sport that it is.”
Full details of Racing Welfare’s Emergency Appeal and the link to donate can be found here.
Karen can usually be found glued to her computer or at the stables. Having edited several national magazines she co-founded Eclipse Magazine in 2008 after realising that many of her friends were nervous about going racing due to lack of information – what to wear, how to bet etc.
She absolutely loves her job (how many people can say that?!) and is truly grateful to all supporters of and contributors to Eclipse Magazine.
If you are reading this she would like to say THANK YOU! (And please spread the word about Eclipse…!!)
