Ludlow race day raises £80,000 for hospital helipads fund

Hundreds of people turned out to the annual Ludlow Charity Race Day to follow the afternoon's races and attend a gala lunch beforehand, all in aid of life-saving helicopter landing pads.

The event raised £80,000 for charity and has become one of the major events of the Ludlow Racecourse calendar, raising cash for good causes.

The day also saw a visit from special guest Richard Farquhar, who has spent a year walking around every racecourse in the UK for his own chosen charities.

This year 520 people packed into a large marquee beside the race track for a champagne reception and lunch followed by an auction. The auction itself raised a total of £23,000 from 11 lots.

One of the regular fixtures on the day is a race open to all-comers – as long as they had raised more than £500 and were deemed safe and fit to ride – thought to have raised about £6,000.

William McLean, chairman of the charity race day committee, said: "We're absolutely delighted. It was very well supported and we had lots of donations beforehand from people who were not able to come on the day."

Money raised yesterday will go to boost the County Air Ambulance Trust's HELP appeal, which goes to funds the building and upkeep of helipads.

Mr Farquhar is nearing the end of an epic 3,000-mile journey in aid of Pancreatic Cancer UK and Racing Welfare. The 53-year-old father-of-four has been walking the distance between, and stopping off at, 60 racecourses across the country.

Aiming to finish where he began, in Newmarket on April 14, he visited Ludlow as his penultimate racecourse stop.