Horse racing owners enjoying Hambleton's Doncaster owners’ day

Owners’ Day 2018

27th March 2018

One of the highlights of the Hambleton social calendar is our complimentary owners’ race day, held at Doncaster's Lincoln meeting within the excellent main stand.

The ever-popular occasion once again proved a big success on Sunday with a significant sum raised for charity as Hambleton’s owners enjoyed a great day from some of the best seats in the house at Doncaster.

Our most popular social occasion of the year began with the racecourse bathed in bright sunshine as owners arrived to be greeted by the Hambleton team. In a matter of minutes there was a great atmosphere in the box as guests found their tables and began to look forward to the day ahead.

As Caroline took to the microphone to offer owners a warm welcome to the box, guests couldn’t fail to notice the impressive display set up for them. This featured sumptuous hampers, handmade chocolates and lots of Cartmel Sticky Toffee treats, arranged by Lizzy, Hambleton’s very own queen of the gifts.

The quality of the complimentary catering was excellent and very well received as owners relaxed and looked forward to what promises to be a very exciting season.

As owners digested their first two courses they were entertained by Tommo, who was in typically fine form.

Tommo soon had the box rocking as he provided a mixture of entertaining stories, racing-related facts and fun before calling up David, an owner in Canny Style who has been with Hambleton for ten years. Tommo asked David about his plans to bike the Baltic for Marie Curie, Hambleton’s chosen charity for the day.

Those who know David are well aware of his wicked sense of humour and he and Tommo had a great time whilst getting over the very important message about the outstanding work Marie Curie do.

Tommo was then joined by Hambleton’s racing consultant and Racing Post form guru Simon Turner as the pair guided owners through the card. Simon passed on a strong message from Kevin Ryan about an 11/1 winner, advised guests to follow Jason Kelly’s charity bet, an 18/1 runner-up, each-way before leaving the box in no doubt that Bill Warby’s charity bet, a 9/2 winner, was the horse to be on in the last.

Our owners have proved hugely generous over the years with tens of thousands raised for charity and once again gave generously for this great cause.

This year’s charity race was the opening race with the carrot of a mini Cartmel Sticky Toffee hamper and a bottle of Tattinger champagne a piece for everyone on the table that had the winning horse.

The 15 tables each chose their runner in a sealed envelope from Caroline and Cosmo before the final two runners in the field were auctioned off for Marie Curie. Table eight were the lucky winners as Right Action came home in front to a great reception before receiving their winning prizes from Tommo.

Throughout the afternoon a great atmosphere developed as new and old owners got acquainted in an informal and fun environment in which new friendships were formed and established friendships flourished. It was great to see so many new faces getting to know some of our old friends as some owners got their first taste of what owning a racehorse means with Hambleton.

On behalf of Hambleton Racing we’d like to say a big thank you to all owners, not only for all the kind words about the day but also for helping make the day the success it was.

We’ve been inundated with kind messages since Sunday from our owners who have collectively proclaimed this year’s event as the best ever.

The challenge is now on to make next year even better!