Fontwell Park executive director Guy Pridie on Fontwell's Centenary Raceday - celebrating 100 years of jump racing at the West Sussex track
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00:00 Now joined by Guy Priddy, Executive Director at Fontwell. A grand day here at Fontwell.
00:06 Guy, you must be pleased to see it all come together after a lot of planning and a lot of hard work I imagine.
00:11 Thanks Steve, yeah absolutely delighted. As you say a lot of planning, the whole team.
00:17 Not just the Fontwell team but a lot of people getting involved from the industry, the community to make this happen.
00:23 We're thrilled with not just the turnout and the support, the weather. This morning wasn't great but today as we opened the gates it just changed for us.
00:33 So we couldn't be happier.
00:34 Would have been typical if you'd lost yet another race day to heavy rain wouldn't it? You've lost a few of them recently.
00:39 This was one you certainly didn't want to lose so happy with that.
00:42 We wouldn't have been surprised. Six pictures we've lost since October due to the rain.
00:47 I was talking to a few people the other day and I don't remember a week up until about the beginning of April where it didn't rain.
00:55 Incredible hasn't it?
00:56 Today's brilliant and as I say we're delighted with how it's gone.
01:00 And what's really noticeable is that you've got racing people here, you've got Fontwell people here, past and present.
01:06 But as you say yourself you've got community and charity people here and that's kind of what Fontwell is about isn't it?
01:12 It's not just about the racing, it's about being part of the local community and involving everyone.
01:17 Has that been a deliberate attempt to try to sort of show that today?
01:21 Absolutely. Ever since I've been here it's always very much about we're a community cause.
01:29 We rely on the local people, the local businesses and this is our way of saying thank you to local businesses, the charities we work with and getting people in to enjoy the day.
01:41 Without the community that we have we probably wouldn't be here today.
01:47 And I suppose the hope is that some people who have come in today because it's a special occasion will perhaps be a bit more likely to come back to the odd race day here and there.
01:54 And if they enjoy themselves today and hopefully they will in the sunshine then they'll be back again.
02:00 Yeah I hope so.
02:02 You know when you abandon six fixtures through the winter you hope people don't lose confidence.
02:07 I think today tells you they haven't. They've come back, they're having a good time and this will encourage them hopefully to come back to our next fixture back on Sunday, Family Fun Day and the ones after that.
02:20 There's plenty of fixtures through the year for all ages.
02:25 Yes, there's good variety isn't there? There's the fixtures for the racing aficionados like your Southern National Spirit but there's the family days as well which remain quite an important part of what you do.
02:35 Yeah, you get the theming right, you have your real racing focused day like you say, the Southern National and the National Spirit fixtures.
02:43 But also your Family Fun Days, 26th May, encouraging families to come but getting the next generation into horse racing, that's the goal.
02:53 Ladies' Evening when we come back in August, we've actually got an Abbott tribute there, their 50th anniversary from when they won Eurovision.
03:02 So getting those themes right, making sure we're marketing to the right audience and when people come, making sure they have a good time so they come back.
03:10 Yeah, we've certainly done that today so congratulations to you and the team on what you've put together today and I hope everybody enjoys the rest of the celebrations.
03:18 Great, thanks Steve.