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Champions Day at Newmarket 2008 |
Emirates Airline
Champion Stakes
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Bolger Quintet Among Superb 138-Strong Darley Dewhurst Stakes Entry 06/08/08
A total of 138 entries has been received for this year’s £270,000 Darley Dewhurst Stakes, run at Newmarket on Champions Day, Saturday, October 18, 2008. [more]
Rau Considers Emirates Airline Champion Stakes for Saddex 06/08/08
The £375,000 Group One Emirates Airline Champion Stakes, which takes place at Newmarket on Champions Day, Saturday, October 18, has attracted a superb 64-strong entry that reads like a who’s who of the season’s star performers. [more]
Pulsating Champions’ Day
16/10/07
Michael Prosser, Director of Racing and Clerk of the Course, was in triumphant mood at the end of Champions’ Day.
He
said: “It has been a totally pulsating day’s racing.
“The Darley Dewhurst Stakes lived up to expectations, the Emirates
Airline Champion Stakes was won by a good, improving horse, while the £2.5
Million totescoop6 Cesarewitch as usual captured the public’s imagination.
“Today our big races were won by representatives from Ireland
and France and the level of international competition generated with
the best horses coming to Newmarket has made the meeting particularly
special.
“That in a nutshell is exactly what the Home of Racing is striving
for - a level of international competition that is second to none.”
HANCOCK’S SWANSONG SET TO BE A DAY TO REMEMBER
Champions’ Day marks the last big raceday for Newmarket managing
director Lisa Hancock, who is stepping down after seven seasons at the
helm.
“I’ll be here to the last for our final meeting of the year
on November 2 & 3 when everyone else is at Wetherby,” joked
Hancock.
“Seriously though, I’ve really, really been looking forward
to this day and it has built up and built up and the Darley Dewhurst
field is absolutely phenomenal. I thought when the National Stakes was
run at the Curragh that they’d stolen our thunder from us but they
haven’t - they’ve actually set the scene for us.
“It’s incredible, the weather is magical and I’m just really buzzing. I was buzzing yesterday and that was a standard day. I’m really excited but I think that probably tells the story that underneath I’m thinking to myself, ‘this is my last big one’.”
She added: “It’s the racedays that have made my job. That’s what it’s all about. Newmarket has 38 racedays but the big ones like this are just what makes the job so very special.”
The facilities at both the NatWest Rowley Mile and the July Course have
been significantly improved under Hancock’s tenure, with the redevelopment
of the much-loved July Course unveiled earlier this season.
Hancock said: “The completion of the July Course re-build is something I’m very proud of and honoured to have been involved with because it’s something that is going to be there for a long, long time. It has met with unanimous approval and that is something of a miracle. It has worked extremely well.”
She continued: “I’m generally proud of that we’ve done here, too, because the Rowley Mile is not easy. It’s very exposed and open and could easily be a cold, sterile environment but little things, like turning the winner’s enclosure round so it feeds the balconies, means the grandstand does work now.”
After the concluding two-day meeting on the first weekend of November,
Hancock will pass the baton to Stephen Wallis, who has been managing
director of Epsom Downs, who has been a regular raceday visitor to Newmarket
of late.
She said: “It’s been a fantastic seven years and I really have enjoyed my time. It is great to be handing over to Stephen; he’s very experienced and will hit the ground running. He’s passionate about racing which, at Newmarket, you need to be.
“Newmarket is incredibly sound and has a fantastic team - it’s certainly not just me - and I think a new style and a new emphasis will be good. It’s exciting times all round really.”
