Hungerford sponsor keen to see more young people engage in racing

Alex Frost, whose Ladyswood Stud sponsors Saturday’s feature race, the Group 2 Hungerford Stakes at Newbury, believes racing should play a bigger part in promoting charities and engaging young people in the sport.

Frost, who heads the Alizeti consortium which took a 25 per cent stake in the Tote in May, is also backing the Racing To School British EBF Maiden Stakes and Wellchild Handicap at Newbury, in recognition of the enormous work those two charities perform.

He said on Friday: “I feel very strongly that racing is passed on to the next generation. I appreciate the work that is done by the two charities, Racing to School and WellChild, and aim to raise awareness of them by sponsoring those races.

"Both do valuable work with young people and are very important to me.

“Racing should engage with the local community – something that Newbury does well – and as many people as possible should be able to go and enjoy it.”

Frost is away in Asia on business this weekend and will not be at Newbury, but he will be represented by members of his family.

He added: “Newbury is our local racecourse and as a family we have a long association with the Hungerford.

“My grandfather Tom was a keen racehorse owner and in 1965 he was lucky enough to win the Hungerford Stakes with a grey horse called Roan Rocket. We can only hope that we may be lucky enough to breed a future Hungerford Stakes winner ourselves.”

John Blake, chief executive of Racing to School, said: “We are very grateful to have been offered a title sponsorship by Alex Frost and his Ladyswood Stud on the prestigious Hungerford Stakes card.

"We work closely with Newbury year-round and a record total of 14,000 young people will participate in our activity programmes across 350 days nationwide this year, the majority of which will be meeting the sport for the first time."

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