Warwick Racecourse ended 2019 with a sell-out for its New Year’s Eve celebration race day.

More than 7,500 festive revellers attended the fixture, making it the largest crowd witnessed at a Warwick race meeting since the 1970s when records began.

Racegoers enjoyed the seven-race programme, as well as a wealth of entertainment.

Eighties and nineties duo The Peas welcomed the crowd as they arrived, many of which had turned up two hours before the first race at 12.25pm.

As the afternoon progressed, Irish band Lampa lit up the occasion and could be heard across the racecourse from their stage in the centre of the track.

The record attendance enjoyed some excellent racing with the crowd sent home happy with a well backed winner in the last race, Wilde About Oscar prepared by leading local trainer and racecourse ambassador, Dan Skelton.  

The track had taken several measures to ensure that racegoers enjoyed their day, including bringing in a record number of external caterers. They also opened up the middle of the track staging a Centre Course Party Enclosure. This new area welcomed around 1500 guests.

Warwick Racecourse General Manager Andre Klein said the day was the perfect end to a successful year for the course, where attendances have sky rocketed over the last four seasons.

“We made several changes to ensure that we maximised people’s experience of what is always a special festive day. Feedback has been really positive and we felt the day had a great atmosphere and was much improved from last year. There will always be things we can enhance and we look forward to putting them in place for NYE 2020.

“Our New Year’s Eve meeting has become a highlight of the local festive social and sporting calendar and this year’s was one of the best. We are grateful for the wonderful support we get from our supporters and sponsors, in particular Local Parking Security.

“It is great to see everyone enjoying some really good racing, entering into the party spirit at the start of what hopefully was a good evening for all.

“Our team work really hard across the holiday to put on a great day and their efforts really were rewarded. It has been a very good year for Warwick and we are looking forward to welcoming everyone back on January 11 for our Classic Chase Day. “

For more information visit www.warwickracecourse.co.uk