WELCOME

A warm welcome to you all this afternoon and thank you for joining us for our Sky Bet Sunday Series Raceday.

With over £200,000 in prize money up for grabs across seven races today, I’m pleased that we’ve been rewarded with some excellent field sizes across much of the card. The Sky Bet Sunday Series is a fantastic initiative and my thanks go to Sky Bet as well as the British Horse Racing Authority, Racecourse Media Group and ITV Racing, all of whom have played a key part in the development of this series which is now in it’s third year Particular thanks go to all of the Owners, Trainers, Jockey’s and Stable Staff for their support of today’s fixture, it’s great for us to be welcoming Horsemen from across the UK and Ireland to Hamilton Park as well as the cameras from ITV Racing who will be broadcasting all of today’s action on ITV4.

There are some fantastic bonuses and prizes linked to the Sky Bet Sunday Series which should provide some excellent competition over the six fixtures in the series. These include;

• £10,000 Jockey Cup - At each Fixture of the 2023 Sky Bet Sunday Series, the jockey to accrue the most points across the 7 races of the Fixture will win £10,000.

• £100,000 to the Owner of the first horse to win 3 races in the Series

• Stable Staff prizes to the three leading stables with guaranteed prizes of £10,000 (1st), £3,000 (2nd) and £2,000 (3rd), based on points from winners, seconds, thirds. Enhancing Best Turned Out awards of £250 per race (split for 1st, 2nd and 3rd) for all races in the Series, to ensure Stable Staff are rewarded for their work preparing their horses for each race.

The competition for the new Jockey Cup is already proving to be a popular target, with Connor Beasley scooping the first £10,000 prize at Musselburgh last month. Connor has three rides today and will be hoping for a strong showing but I’m sure the twenty-eight other jockeys competing today will have their eye on the prize. 17-year-old star apprentice Billy Loughnane also joins us to make his Hamilton Park debut and I wish him luck as he takes on the famous Hamilton Park hill for the first time

With so many runners this afternoon we’re sure to see some extremely competitive racing throughout the card. The Sky Bet Sunday Series Fillies’ Handicap at 4.45pm has a full field of fifteen set to go to post, with the Ollie Pears-trained Crown Prince looking to repeat last year’s victory which saw her win by a short head over the same distance Jim Goldie has targeted this race with three runners including A La Francaise and Graces Quest for owners Summerstorm Bloodstock who have a good strike-rate here and could well challenge for the win.

The 6.15pm Sky Bet Sunday Series Stayers Handicap is over our longest trip of 1 mile, 5 furlongs, with our unique starting position beyond the winning post. This looks another excellent contest with course and distance winners Captain Haddock and Haizoom set to go head-to-head once again. Haizoom took last years contest by just a neck from Captain Haddock, but with today’s weights and a strong field it’s sure to be another close race

We’re delighted to be welcoming the team of Oli Bell, Luke Harvey, Leonna Mayor and Timeform’s Dan Barber who will be presenting ITV Racing’s live coverage, whilst Love Island star Frankie Foster will be sharing stories from around the course on Racing TV’s Instagram page, so do use #Raceday if you are using social media this afternoon.

Once the on-track action has finished, DJ Stevie Lennon will be hosting our after-party in the Parade Ring Marquee along with the fantastic Gav On Sax. It should be a great way to end the evening and the bar is open until 8.45pm, so do stay on after the last race to enjoy the party Have a wonderful raceday and I hope you back a few winners!

Kind regards,

ASHLEY MOON, RACECOURSE MANAGING DIRECTOR