Busiest time of the season draws near at Warwick Racecourse

But, that meeting will herald the course's busiest time of the season as it is quickly followed by the highly popular May Racing Carnival which was introduced by former manager Andre Klein drawing on his experience of managing courses in New Zealand before taking up the post at Warwick.

The Carnival comprises four meetings, starting with Kids Carnival Day on Monday 1st May which combines seven races with a host of free children's entertainment including circus skills, bouncy castles, graffiti artists with children's workshops, a children's entertainer, bubble artist 'Paris Bubbles' and a treasure hunt. Admission for a family of four is £30.

Next up will be the House Of Cavani Ladies Night on Saturday 13th which, appropriately on the night of the Eurovision Song Contest, features tribute act Abba Fever.

There will be a free festival glitter bar for people to glam up and darts professionals Bobby George and Peter Manley will be taking the crowd on with darts competitions throughout the night.

Then, it's back to afternoon racing for the Logicor Proudly Warwick meeting when the two feature races will be The Wigley Group Carnival Handicap Chase and the Feldon Dunsmore Carnival Handicap Hurdle.

It's a day when the course remembers people and events from the past and, as racing started at Warwick in 1707, with the grandstand, parts of which remain today, built in 1809, there is plenty to celebrate.

One of the people associated with Warwick was William Eborall, a local mason who became the first clerk of the course.

Two horses that are remembered are Coronation, the winner of the 1841 Epsom Derby, who took the Warwick Trial Stakes on the way to Classic success and Chandler, winner of the 1848 Grand National whose leap of 37 feet during the 1847 Leamington Hunt Club Steeplechase became legendary.

Wigley Property Night rounds off the Carnival and the season on the 31st.

Follow the latest news from Warwick Racecourse via David Hucker’s reports.