Also see: How to raise money from a Race Night

What is a Race Night?

A Race Night is a unique way to raise funds. It brings all the excitement of an evenings racing to your club or charity.

The races are sealed in an envelope until all bets have been placed; this ensures that no one can know the result in advance. Once the bets have been placed a member of the audience selects a race, the seal is broken and the fun begins.

HOW TO PLAN YOUR RACE NIGHT

A WELL ORGANISED EVENT CAN RAISE IN EXCESS OF £500

Race Nights are very entertaining and great fun. A well organised event can raise several hundred pounds. We have included details of how to organise your event and by following our advice, the cost of your Race Night can be met from the money raised whilst still raising a substantial amount for your funds.

THE VENUE AND PUBLICITY

You will need a room which is large enough to allow an informal layout where everyone has a good view of the projector screen, whilst ensuring that people can move about freely, to place their bets and collect their winnings at the Tote and Payout desks. If space is a problem the Tote and Payout desks can be in another room.

Attract your audience (or in racing parlance “punters”!) using your usual methods of advertising – newsletters, notice boards etc. ensuring that you promote it as a social event rather than a fundraising event. As long as you get people through the doors you can be fairly sure of raising money on the night. The preparation you do before the night will enable you to raise even more money. This will be explained in greater detail later.

WHAT EQUIPMENT IS PROVIDED?

We supply a compere, the video projector, big screen, race tapes with full commentary,, race tickets, race cards, tote payout sheet and advice in running the event both prior to and on the night itself. We prefer that you supply staff to run the Tote and Payout Desk. This can be covered by two people for the Tote and one person for the Payout Desk (our compere will explain how this is done on the night).If you require us to supply staff, this can be done at an additional cost. Prices on request.

PLANNING YOUR RACE CARD

We provide a “Race Card” which will contain details of 8 races, each race having 8 named horses. The names range from being amusing to a little risqué. If you wish to supply names for horses to us, we can incorporate them in to a Race Card.
In the commentary the horses in the race are identified by number only, so it does not matter which video is chosen or what names are on the Race Card.

More importantly, the Race Card is a valuable source of income. Used properly it can cover the cost of the event and more besides.

1. Sponsorship – approach 8 local business’ and get them to sponsor a race each at say £10 or £25 (remember the sky’s the limit as far as sponsorship is concerned).The sponsor will then have the race named after their company. Their name can be included on the Race Card e.g. “The Fred Bloggs Cup” and our compere will also ensure their support for the Race Night is acknowledged during the event.
2. Sell the Horses to Members – they then become the owner of that horse and their name and choice of horse is shown on the Race Card. If their horse wins the race they are awarded a prize (such as a bottle of wine or some chocolates). The cost of the prize will be met from the sale of the horses. You can chose how much to sell the horses for – by charging £2 per horse, if you sell all the horses in all the races you will have raised £128.
3. Sell the Race Card - on the evening you can sell a copy of the Race Card to people attending for 10p to £1, or include it with your admission fee.