Racecourses create good outcomes from a bad situation following this week’s cancellations

At this time of year, we usually hear of fixture abandonments due to cold weather and snow. In these situations racecourses will often donate food that would otherwise be wasted to local good causes.

This week, with racing unexpectedly cancelled in order to contain an equine influenza outbreak, racecourse teams are left with surplus food for hospitality guests who had pre-booked to attend the cancelled fixtures.

Huntingdon and Chelmsford City have both delivered their unwanted food to local homeless shelters to help those in need in the surrounding area. Chelmsford City, who donated meals for over 200 booked hospitality guests commented:

“This year we have a strong focus on community engagement and giving back. At Christmas we ran our ‘Secret Santa’ among staff asking them to bring in gifts that would be taken to New Direction – the Salvation Army resettlement centre in Braintree.

When Thursday’s fixture was cancelled we thought of all the food that would go to waste and saw this as another opportunity to support New Direction, and create something good out of a bad situation.”

Liam Johnson, GM of Huntingdon Racecourse said:

‘The team were clearly disappointed to not be racing on Thursday but of course it’s the right thing to do following the BHA’s guidance and investigations. It was unfortunate that the racecourse had so much food left over that would have gone to waste, it was an obvious decision for the team to try and reuse the food and we felt we could make a difference to the local community’.