Best turned out in Palace House goes to public vote in support of Racing Welfare

An innovative vote will determine who is the best-turned-out runner for Saturday's Betfair Supports Racing Welfare Palace House Stakes at Newmarket with the public able to select their favourite from clips submitted by the grooms.

With the action taking place behind closed doors, Racing Welfare, with the support of Betfair, have encouraged those responsible for looking after the runners in the Group 3 to take videos of them preparing their horses at home and offer viewers insight into the process.

The videos will be broadcast as part of ITV Racing's coverage, as well as being shown on Racing Welfare's social media channels and on www.racingwelfare.co.uk/rwbto.

Dawn Goodfellow, Racing Welfare chief executive, said: "The initiative gives us the opportunity to showcase some of the work that goes into preparing racehorses ahead of them being seen on track and offers the public some fabulous behind-the-scenes access."

Voting on the Racing Welfare website opens at 6pm on Friday and runs until the start of the race at 1.50pm.

The charity is also asking for donations to its Covid-19 Emergency Appeal, which is aiming to raise £500,000, with Betfair matching donations in the run-up to the Palace House Stakes up to the value of £30,000.

Jessica Stafford, racing campaigns manager at Betfair, said: "Knowing that many racegoers will not be able to see horses in the flesh, this initiative will provide a really unique way to recognise and champion the hard work that stable staff put into getting their horses prepared for raceday."

You can donate to Racing Welfare's Covid-19 Emergency Appeal here