Worcester Racecourse celebrates 300 year anniversary on July 4

Published by

Nicky Godding

It's an historic year for Worcester racecourse based at the site known as Pitchcroft, and the raceday chosen to celebrate the 300^th anniversary of racing in Worcester takes place on July 4.

The day has been given an added boost of a royal visit from Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, will be in attendance at the racecourse to help mark the occasion. Her Royal Highness is well-connected with Worcester Racecourse, having ridden a winner in the 3 mile Droitwich Handicap Chase, on her own horse Croc Na Cuille, on 3 September 1987.

This is alongside the revival of the famous Worcester Grand Annual Steeple Chase, which is returning to Worcester Racecourse after an 85-year absence. Once one of the most important steeplechase races in the National Hunt calendar, the Worcester Grand Annual Steeple Chase ran from 1836 until 1933. The importance of this race was highlighted in 1853 when Bourton won the Grand Annual, then going onto win the 1854 running of the Grand National at Aintree.

Executive Director of Worcester Racecourse, Jenny Cheshire, said: “With the visit from The Princess Royal, the revival of the Worcester Grand Annual and a special anniversary dinner in our marquee on the 4^th July in aid of the Injured Jockeys Fund (IJF), our anniversary raceday is set to be a fitting celebration for a racecourse with such an illustrious past.”

As one of the oldest racecourses in the UK, the first race meeting hosted at the site in the heart of Worcester City Centre, known as ‘Pitchcroft’, took place on 27 June 1718. In the Racecourse’s 300-year history there has been everything from a bare-knuckle fight watched by a crowd of 30,000 to a record 229 runners on an 8 race card in January 1965.

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.