Fontwell Park bosses pleased to lure Southern National’s biggest crowd in decade

The Chris Gordon-trained Unanswered Prayers, ridden by Freddie Gordon as odds of 13/2 took the honours in the gruelling three-mile, three-and-a-half furlong contest which is one of the track’s annual highlights.

It was watched by Fontwell’s biggest Southern National crowd for almost 10 years, with the restaurant and hospitality boxes sold out.

Southern National raceday in pictures by Clive Bennett.

The big race was sponsored by Bet Goodwin for the second year in a row while the Aldingbourne Trust was the chosen charity for a day when 52 runners took to the track across seven races.

The Southern National was shown live on ITV 1 – and it was the first leg of a double on the day for trainer Gordon, a regular at the track.

Fontwell executive director Guy Pridie said: “The Southern National race day is one of the biggest fixtures of the year for us with the feature race live on ITV, so we’re naturally always excited for it.

"The fixture has typically been a key date for hardcore racing fans, however this year we have been focused on the local audience as well by building awareness of the day and the quality of the card – which resulted in the biggest crowd at the fixture for almost 10 years.

"We were delighted to be working with The Aldingbourne Trust, who played such a key part in the day.

“We now look ahead to a busy December with our Christmas Jumper raceday on December 10, then all focus on Boxing Day racing, our biggest day of the year.”