Dogs join equine stars at Warwick's Four-Legged Friends Day
Warwick hosts its popular Oddschecker Four-Legged Friends Day on Sunday combining horse racing with an afternoon of dog shows and racing on the track with the canine highlight being the Pug Gold Cup.
The Pug Gold Cup, sponsored this year by Pug Pubs, will be run at 2.30pm and is limited to 34 dogs. As no entries will be accepted on the day, owners need to register in advance at https://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/warwick. As well as the racing, there will be a number of shows with prizes, including for best rescue dog and young handler.
The horse racing action gets underway at 2.10pm with the Bet Smarter With Oddschecker Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle over two miles followed by the Oddschecker Free Bets Novices' Hurdle (Novices' Championship Hurdle Series Qualifier) also over the minimum trip.
There is a step up in trip to two miles and five furlongs for the Royal Pug Handicap Hurdle with the first steeplechase of the afternoon being the £15,000 Get The Best Odds With Oddschecker Mares' Handicap Chase at 3.40pm.
Topping the card for prize money are two Class 3 events worth £18,000 each, being the fifth, the Oddschecker Cheltenham Free Bets Handicap Hurdle (Challenger Stayers Hurdle Series Qualifier) over three and a quarter miles and the sixth, the Best Cheltenham Odds With Oddschecker Volcano Handicap Chase over three miles and five furlongs which remembers the popular grey Volcano who won five times around the course. The Black Pug Open National Hunt Flat Race brings the afternoon to a close at 5.23pm.
It's a good week for local racegoers with Sunday's Warwick meeting followed by another at Stratford-on-Avon the day after as the sport gears up for the start of the four-day Cheltenham Festival which gets underway on Tuesday. Stratford on Monday is the first of 17 meetings at the course this year, finishing on Thursday 29 October. Details of tickets and annual memberships, can be found at https://stratfordracecourse.net.
Highlight of the first day of is the Festival is the Unibet Champion Hurdle in which Shelfield Green trainer Dan Skelton saddles The New Lion who, along with his Boodles Gold Cop hope Grey Dawning, joined other Festival-bound horses in a recent Warwick racecourse gallop. Skelton set a new personal best in prize money at the weekend, passing the £3.4m mark and, with some big festivals still to come, will set reigning champion Willie Mullins a target that will be difficult to beat.
Reigning champion jockey Sean Bowen continues to clock up the winners in defence of his title and, with just under two months of the season left, is over 100 ahead of his nearest rival Harry Skelton. Back in the 1962/63 season, Josh Gifford was crowned champion with 70 winners, giving some perspective to the achievements of modern day riders. Peter Scudamore was the first to crack the 200-winner barrier with 221 in 1988/89 and Sir AP McCoy raised the bar even higher with 289 winners in 2001/02, a record that still stands.