Sue Ryder Mascot Gold Cup at Wetherby Racecourse: Mascots have moment in spotlight

It is the 18th running of the event which usually attracts severalk thousand spectators and sees mascots negotiating six fences, including an open ditch and a mock water jump, to go for glory.

Wetherby Racecourse chief executive Jonjo Sanderson said the first flat fixture of the season from about an hour before the first of eight horse races, at 2pm, there would be a mascot parade, where people can watch them getting warmed up in the Parade Ring to music.

He said: “After the first horse race we get the horses off the track and linhe up the mascots. The mascots have different challenges such as no legs, short legs, so they have a handicap system.

"So it’s sausages first, then giraffes, followed by the sprinters, such as foxes, squirrels and rabbits that have full dynamism. Then there’s the added challenge of bales of straw to jump over. It’s survival of the fittest! People fall at the last, lose a foot or a shoe or their heads have fallen off. It’s quite amusing.”

The racecourse will put on extra attractions for families in the Paddock Enclosure and is inviting families to bring picnics and get closer to the action, where the horses parade and winners come in.

The meeting has taken on an additional race, a one mile two furlong handicap, as Doncaster Racecourse had had to give up some of its races which the British Horseracing Authority wanted to preserve in the calendar.

The feature race, being sponsored by Constant Security Service, is a fillies handicap over seven furlongs worth £15,000.

Mr Sanderson said the fixture, the first of three flat racing days, including the Ladies Night on June 2, at the course - is likely to see up to 90 runners – the maximum number of horses the racecourse is allowed due to the number of stables there.

He said: “Since we introduced flat racing ten years ago the trainers and jockeys have said the track is absolutely fantastic. The winners of the first race – a novice stakes – have usually gone on to do some impressive stuff, like the big races at Ascot and the Derby meeting. A horse that came second two or three seasons ago ended up winning a group one race in France over the Arc weekend. Our track and configuration does attract some high quality animals which is all we want to do.

"We would love to get more fixtures, but that’s a hard thing as races are courses currency, no one wants to give a fixture up and you can’t keep introducing fixtures because suddenly you have more fixtures than you require for the horse population.”

Mr Sanderson dismissed suggestions that the racecourse could dilute its reputation as the home of jump racing in Yorkshire, saying part of the revenue generated from the flat racing meetings was invested in the jump racing fixtures.

He said: “We’ve still preserved the same high quality fixtures and jump races that we’ve always had. One of the reasons we introduced flat racing is because since the A1 was realigned and the course was altered it was proving harder and harder to keep the racecourse in a condition acceptable to jump on.”

He said those managing the course had found it difficult to keep it in condition for safe, competitive jump racing in the spring following the completion of the motorway upgrade in the 1990s.

Mr Sanderson said: “The problem we have with all the works that have gone on the motorway and surrounding network is that in times of wet weather we have found ourselves much further down the pecking order in terms of water being carried to the River Nidd, which is just to the north of us. The attenuation ponds and dykes that are associated with the service station and motorway are all effectively in a queue in front of us. When our track floods we lose a fixture. I think that is down to the change in the water dispersion network and surface water being generated by the six lanes of motorway and all the tarmac at the service station. We are also seeing a change in the weather pattern, that’s another contributing factor.

"If you get a dry spring then we’re having to pile the water on. One year we were racing in June and had to abandon the fixture because the ground was too hard. The conditions that are acceptable to flat racing, because obviously no obstacles are being jumped, are different. This time of year is more conducive to flat racing, which is not a bad thing, as is shown by the amount of runners we get.”