Racecourses ready to welcome epic fundraising venture

On Tuesday 5th May, fundraiser and 53-year-old father of four, Richard Farquhar, will arrive at Exeter Racecourse’s race meeting having walked all the way there from Taunton Racecourse. Two days later, Farquhar will walk on to Newton Abbot Racecourse - a hop, a skip and a jump, in comparison - arriving at the race meeting on Thursday 7th May. These two walks are the next stages of his 2,750 mile journey to connect all of mainland Britain’s racecourses in an epic fundraising venture called Walking The Courses.

Farquhar is aiming to raise £1.4million for Racing Welfare and Pancreatic Cancer UK by connecting all sixty racecourses on foot. To complete both his Taunton to Exeter and Exeter to Newton Abbot legs of the journey in style, Farquhar will be walking around each of the racecourses themselves. The laps of the racecourses will take place at 3:45pm at Exeter Racecourse and at 13:15 at Newton Abbot Racecourse. Racegoers are encouraged to participate and should contact Walking The Courses via the website (bottom) if they wish to do so.

It is relatively early days for Walking The Courses, with Exeter Racecourse and Newton Abbot Racecourse being just the eight and ninth racecourses in the country to host the charity campaign. By April 2016, upon arrival back at Newmarket Racecourse, having completed all 58 racecourse-to-racecourse walks, Farquhar hopes to have hit his ambitious target of £1.4million, to have involved people from all across the UK in his challenge - including notable individuals within the horse racing industry - and partnered with some of the biggest corporates within the racing industry. Thus far, Walking The Courses has featured on Channel 4 Racing, At The Races, Racing UK and BBC World’s Service’s coverage of the Grand National, which was won by Walking The Courses’ Official Equine Ambassador, Many Clouds.

In spite of the campaign having only started in March, Farquhar has already raised over £75,000 (£91,000 including pledges), a great platform from which to chase his fundraising target of £1.4million. The exit bucket collection at both racecourses will be in aid of Walking The Courses and racegoers are encouraged to give generously for the campaign’s two extremely worthy but crucially underfunded beneficiaries.

Managing Director at Newton Abbot Racecourse, Patrick Masterson, comments, “Newton Abbot Racecourse is very much looking forward to welcoming Richard Farquhar and his team to our Racecourse. To walk 2,750 miles around our racecourses in Britain is an enormous credit to him and to support two wonderful charities is also amazing. We very much hope the Newton Abbot crowd will turn out to support such a wonderful effort.” General Manager at Exeter Racecourse, Daniel Thompson, added, “We do not envy his quest, but are delighted to support him”.

To find out more about Walking The Courses and to get involved, visit www.walkingthecourses.com