Chepstow Plant International, a national mineral and aggregates contractor based in Caldicot, has helped raise a whopping £73,000 for the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital Charity at its Royal Ascot Charity Day, hosted at Chepstow Racecourse on 22 June. This week it was announced that this year’s total was the highest-ever amount raised.
On the day, 270 guests from around the UK enjoyed a fantastic luncheon, afternoon tea, live TV coverage from Royal Ascot, a Gold Cup raffle and the inaugural Best Dressed Table of Guests award.
Chepstow Plant International has raised over £1,000,000 across the last 20 years for charities, with the last 16 years dedicated to provide for the 73,000 children who receive care at the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales in Cardiff.
The money raised from the day will be used specifically for the next stage development in the Neonatal Unit of the Children’s Hospital to fund state of the art new incubators. They will allow it to respond to the ever increasing number of premature and critically ill babies cared for there.
Eddie Hayward OBE, the chairman of both the sponsoring company and the Noah’s Ark charity, had horses in training with the late Milton Bradley for many years. Together they had over 200 winners.
It’s Caribbean Race Night at Chepstow on Friday, with seven races from 5.40. Traditional Jamaican food and specialist craft rum will be on offer leading up to live music from the reggae band Trenchtown Experience after the last from 9.00 onward.
The unstoppable Sean Bowen, not content with leading the National Hunt jockeys’ table, is even riding winners on the flat now.
He recorded his second career win on the level at Pontefract on Friday evening riding Supposedtobe, the 25/1 outsider in a field of seven, for his father Peter.
The next day the Bowens were in the Market Rasen winners enclosure thanks to Coal Fire’s last-gasp victory in a contest over two and a half miles. Previously he’d been tried at two and three but this distance on rain-softened ground was ideal.
On Sunday Sean travelled to Stratford, having partnered 12 winners from 28 rides in the preceding fortnight. In the competitive feature race, he rode Sir Tivo to score convincingly. Like the jockey, horse and trainer Gary Hanmer were already in good form. The winner has now won ten times, seven of them with Bowen on board.
A recent £55,000 purchase, Minella Rescue won the bumper in the style of an above average horse to complete a double for Bowen and a treble for Hanmer. Brian Hughes also rode a winner on the Stratford card, but he is now 27 behind Bowen.
Meanwhile, Honey I’m Good won for the second time in a week at Newton Abbot for Evan and Isabel Williams. The mare is clearly in great form and she has entries in three races at Worcester on Thursday.
