Cheltenham racegoers asked to contribute to local food bank in urgent Christmas appeal

Racegoers are being asked to donate an item of food across the upcoming two-day meeting at Cheltenham as the racecourse look to support an urgent Christmas appeal from its local foodbank.

The track's second televised race (1.50) on ITV4 on Friday has been named the Cheltenham Racecourse Food Bank Collection Mares' Handicap Chase in an effort to boost contributions for The Trussell Trust, the UK's largest food bank network, who are expecting to provide more than one million emergency food parcels this winter.

Visitors to Cheltenham can contribute tinned or jarred food and long-life milk and juice as well as household essentials such as shampoo, washing up liquid and laundry detergent at various collection points across the track. 

The Trussel Trust has provided a record number of food parcels in 2023 as the cost of living crisis continues to impact lives in Britain. The charity reported 320,000 people had turned to food banks for the first time between April and September.

The Trussell Trust is the UK's largest food bank network

Cheltenham's clerk of the course Jon Pullin said: "This is a great opportunity to help those that are not quite as fortunate as all of us and we're very much encouraging racegoers to bring something and drop it off at the various collection points that will be on site. Hopefully we can have a positive impact from this race fixture. It's a very important cause."

The charity appeal comes as the track's sole fixture in December has been rebranded as the Christmas Meeting, following the switch of the International Hurdle to Cheltenham's Trials day fixture in January.

It will be the first time the New course has been raced on since hunter chase night in May, and the ground is expected to remain soft across Friday and Saturday following a December deluge. It is forecast to stay dry throughout racing.

"We're soft on the New course and soft, heavy in places on the cross-country course ," said Pullin. "We've had over two inches of rain this month but we should be dry, thankfully, through racing. We have a favourable forecast with temperatures around 9-10c and we might get some sunny spells.

"It's soft ground, although it 's improving slightly now its stopped raining. It won't dry too much though."

Cheltenham will run a number of Christmas-themed events for children on Saturday in the track's family area.

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