This year’s Hambleton Racing Owners’ Christmas lunch, held last week at York Racecourse, proved a great success as owners from our horse racing syndicates joined us to for our traditional Christmas get together.
Our Christmas social event is a popular date in our social calendar, and it was great to see a record number of owners joining us for this year’s event, held this year within the impressive Ebor stand at York.
As guests enjoyed mulled wine ahead of a traditional Christmas lunch, a great atmosphere soon developed as owners caught up with friends and new owners to Hambleton were given our usual warm welcome.
The atmosphere developed further as owners were entertained by our excellent magician who soon mesmerised guests with his impressive magic, making playing cards fly from the floor, drinks come out of thin air, and many other memorable tricks, that impressed and entertained guests alike throughout the day.
The main room of the Ebor stand offers a wonderful view across the Knavesmire while the racecourse provided a first-class Christmas lunch, with turkey and all the trimmings unsurprisingly the most popular dish of the day.
Many owners took time out of their day to say just how good the catering had been which was great to hear.
As lunch was digested, attention turned to our traditional Christmas quiz, which once again tested our owners with a selection of Christmas trivia, with some particular tricky questions included about what the Hambleton team would be getting up to over the festive season.
Head racing manager Cosmo took to the microphone to be quizmaster for the afternoon and had plenty of fun as he read out the answers to the room, including when Lizzie’s Christmas decorations went up and what game Simon would be playing on Christmas Day.
There were some impressive efforts from tables across the room, but the combined wisdom of Chris, David, Graham, Jayne, John, Karen, Margaret and Ruth won the day with an impressive winning score.
Their excellent efforts secured each couple in the team a lovely box of chocolates and bouquet of flowers to help celebrate their achievement, while the runners-up didn’t leave empty handed either, with some festive biscuits coming their way and gifts coming their way.
After confirming the result Cosmo wished all our guests a Merry Christmas and happy new year before directing owners to take home an early Christmas present from Hambleton, our 2024 racing calendar.
It was great to see so many owners join us for this year’s Christmas lunch on what proved to be another thoroughly enjoyable afternoon for the Hambleton team.
We’ve been inundated with some kind messages since the event and would like to take this chance to say a big thank you to each and every owner that attended and helped make this year’s Christmas at York Racecourse event the success it was.
