Greatwood Charity Raceday proved a great hit with racegoers this Saturday (1 March) with the celebration of equestrianism capturing the imagination of racegoers.

The exciting day helped raise funds for Greatwood, a leading racehorse welfare charity that runs a number of inspirational programmes catering for children and young adults with special educational needs.

Running an ‘Equine Village’ with fun educational activities, including rosette making, face painting, riding simulators, quizzes and games, were students from the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester. The project made up part of their final year event management degree and was really well-received by those in attendance.

Before racing, the Parade Ring played host to a variety of equestrian displays from re-trained racehorses including The Queen’s horse Barbers Shop. And international eventers, led by Paul Tapner on Inishmor – best retrained eventing racehorse in 2013 – were also on show.

On the track it was Shangani who made off with the feature race, the Stanjames.com Supporting Greatwood Gold Cup. Ridden by Tom Scudamore for Venetia Williams, the 3/1 favourite rallied in the run in to just deny Rebel Rebellion in a thrilling finish by one-and-a-quarter lengths.

It was grand servant Summery Justice who earlier in the afternoon was first past the post in the Banbury International Supporting Greatwood Veterans’ Handicap Chase. The 10-year-old was another winner for in-form handler Williams and galloped all the way to the line to see off Burton Port under AP McCoy by seven lengths. Liam Treadwell’s mount returned the 9/2 second favourite.

Newbury’s Chief Executive Julian Thick said; “The sun came out and it was a fantastic day’s action, all for a very worthy cause in Greatwood. I’d like to extend my thanks to the students of the Royal Agricultural College for all their hard work in making today such a success, and to all the racegoers for their generosity in supporting the great work Greatwood does.”

Helen Yeadon, Founder and Managing Director of Greatwood added: “We always enjoy coming to Newbury for Greatwood Charity Day and this year has been no exception. There was some brilliant racing, the students were fantastic, and the money raised will help us continue our important work.”