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UNWIND ON FRIDAY EVENING AT SALISBURY

Posted July 18th, 2003

Salisbury Racecourse opens its doors on Friday, July 25, when racegoers can come and enjoy a six-race programme to kick the weekend off in style.

The two earlier fixtures at Salisbury this month were both hugely successful with a healthy increase in attendance on each occasion.

The Ladies' Evening on Friday, July 4, saw a crowd of around 6,000 attracted to the beautiful Wiltshire course. This compared with an attendance of just under 4,000 the previous season and it was fantastic to see so many women having made the effort to look so nice.

The following weekend Salisbury's only Saturday fixture of the season on July 12 was blessed with hot and sunny weather with the number of people coming through the turnstiles increasing to 5,100 from 4,300 in 2002.

In addition to the great horseracing action on Friday, July 25, the crowd will have the benefit of a big screen to help view the racing action and, for younger racegoers, there will be a bouncy castle and creche. Music lovers will be able to enjoy a jazz band.

The first race on the card, the £7,000-added Salisbury Journal Maiden Stakes for two-year-olds over six furlongs, goes to post at 6.05pm.

Last year the Mick Channon-trained Zafeen comfortably justified odds-on favouritism in the equivalent contest to beat Sesary by three and a half lengths. The Zafonic colt has turned into a top-class performer and he won the Group One St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot last month.

This season's crowd will be hoping that the finish to the final race of the evening, the £8,000-added Saffie Joseph & Sons Fillies' Rated Handicap (8.35pm), will be as exciting as in 2002.

The seven-furlong event went to the Jeff Smith-owned Highland Shot, then trained by Salisbury director Ian Balding, who got up to lead in the last strides to deny Pie High by a short-head.

Richard Hughes displayed why many people consider him to be the best jockey in the country when he won the equivalent of the longest race on the programme, the £5,250-added Approach Vauxhall Now In Churchfields Salisbury Handicap (7.35pm), in 2002.

He got off to a flyer at the beginning of this one mile six furlong event and was quickly 10 lengths clear of his seven rivals on the Hughie Morrison-trained Fletcher. Hughes subsequently steadied the pace of the race but kept enough in reserve to hold the challenge of Saorsie by half a length.

The £8,000-added Goadsby & Harding Managers Maiden Stakes (6.35pm), the £8,000-added Harry Hookey 82nd Birthday Premier Claiming Stakes (7.05pm) and the £5,250-added one-mile handicap (8.05pm) complete the programme.

Jeremy Martin, Salisbury's Clerk of the Course and Racecourse Manager, said: "The first two July fixtures at Salisbury were tremendously successful and the one on Friday, July 25, can continue this run of success."

Admission prices are Members £16, Tattersalls £10, Course £5, and, as at all Salisbury's meetings, accompanied children under 16 are admitted FREE. Car parking is also FREE.

For further information, please call Salisbury Racecourse on 01722 326461

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