Goodwood celebrates prestigious Racecourse Association award

The Racecourse Association (RCA) has named Goodwood Racecourse as showcase champion at the Showcase Awards 2012.

The independent judging panel commended the racecourse for its overall strategic approach to enhancing the customer experience.

Goodwood also scooped the individual Marketing Award for its August bank holiday weekend promotion, when parts of the venue were transformed into a 1950s-style British seaside resort, complete with beach huts and a sandy beach.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The course had initiatives nominated in two other categories at the awards.

The team from Fontwell Park narrowly missed out on an award, having been nominated for the successful All About The Horse raceday staged earlier in the year.

RCA Chairman Ian Barlow commented: “I am absolutely delighted to see the breadth and depth of excellence and innovation on British racecourses.

“The winners and finalists show how our racecourses are working very hard in a competitive leisure and sport market to polpularise the sport and sustain British Racing as the most varied and interesting racing anywhere.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Special congratulations must go to Goodwood racecourse as they have consistently shown over the different entries made to these awards, what an excellent job they have been doing in improving the raceday experience for guests and visitors.

“These awards are very competitive, so many congratulations to Adam Waterworth and his team on such a fantastic job.’

Goodwood MD Waterworth said: “Everyone at Goodwood is absolutely delighted to have received this award. The philosophy behind the Showcase Awards is all about sharing best practice among the racecourses and during this afternoon’s event, we picked up a huge number of great ideas for us to take into next year”

The Showcase Awards Dinner followed on from a daytime programme of seminars and idea sharing where racecourses were able to share best practice and good ideas in improving the raceday experience.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Guest speakers included Jamie Aitchison of Channel 4 and Michael Caulfield of Sporting Edge.

A Twitter and Facebook competition run in conjunction with the Racing Post for their readers to suggest new initiatives to improve the raceday experience was won by Erica Wicks for her suggestion to help racegoers get ‘up close and personal with the other side of racing’ through links with local stables and racing personalities.

Don’t miss next week’s Observer for news of a great ticket deal at Goodwood - plus details of another of our great Goodwood competitions