A Night at the Races
Alive and kicking events t/a Andy Smith Presents have now been professionally presenting horse racing nights for over 17 years to a diverse range of clubs and organisations including football and cricket teams, pre school, nursery, primary and private schools and many charitable organisations to raise much needed funds and bringing the thrills and spills of a traditional English race meeting to your chosen venue.
On the night of the race evening I will bring along all of the latest audio and visual equipment to present the race night and over 20 of the most up to date race DVD’s available on the market, all run on English racecourses over both flat and jumps. All of the tote tickets will be provided and personalised race programmes. My greatest asset is my professional presentation skills to compere the race night throughout gained through 16 years of presentation skills as a former dj of 12 years and race night presentation. I will also offer my advice on the best options to take prior to the date of your event and during the event itself. A race night usually consists of either 8 or 9 races.
I will guide you through the simple process of planning and organising a profitable night at the races and a very enjoyable evening of entertainment for your invited guests and members of your club.
HORSE RACING
I will guide you through the simple process of organising a Night at The Races:
The success of a Race Night does require a small amount of input from the members of any organisation prior to the night of the Race Night itself.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Fundraising: Organising a Fun Night at the Races.
(Step 1 - Planning)
Plan a date for your race night at least 4 weeks in advance allowing you time to promote the race night to as many members of your organisation as possible. Please note race nights are a seasonal activity and you should avoid a number of months in the calendar year. The ideal time to hold a night at the races is February to the end of May and September to the end of November. It is difficult to bring together all of your intended guests in the Summer months due to holidays and I have found Christmas and January have always been difficult to attract members and guests due to Christmas parties and the expense of the festive season.
(Step 2 - Ticket Sales)
Consider if you are going to sell tickets to the race night and if the price of the entrance ticket will include providing your guests with a meal and consider the costs of the meal you will be providing. You may also approach a main sponsor to sponsor the event and contribute to my fee to present the night for you
I have seen many options to provide your guests with a meal over the years including catering a hot or cold buffet at your venue yourselves. Collecting a fish and chip supper from a local chip shop or pizzeria. One of the best options to give some thought is finding a mobile catering business to come to your venue and cook your meal on site as the meal will be made to order and fresh.
I am unable to advise on the ticket price but consider your set up costs carefully including hire of a village hall, cost of food and the race night presenter’s fee. £5 - £10 tends to be a sensible fee to charge for an entry ticket to cover set up costs and hopefully be in profit before the stalls open for the 1st time.
As with many organisations the planning and organisation is left to a selective number of active members of a club or committee. Please consider sharing the work out with as many members as possible.
The key to a very successful race night is to be in a profit situation before the 1st race begins.
(Step 3 - Race Sponsorship)
There will be 8 races on the night. Gain sponsors for each of the 8 races, approach local companies who support your club, members of your club may wish to sponsor a race, some members of your organisation may own their own businesses, approach your boss at work, write to local companies in your town or village and suppliers to your school.
Again from my experience aim to get each race sponsored at £25.00 or £50.00. You may be very successful and secure 2 sponsors for each of the 8 races, I have even seen in the past some organisations have 3 sponsors for each race.
Your sponsors name and business details will be proudly displayed in the race programme and as I am compeering the race night I will be thanking them for their kind support also ask them for advertising literature
Remember share the responsibility of gaining sponsorship with as many members of your organisation as possible. 8 races sponsored at £25.00=£200.00 if we can gain 16 sponsors £400.00
(Step 4 - Sale of the Horses, Jockeys & Trainers)
In each of the 8 races there are 8 horses, again prior to the night of the race night sell each of the 8 horses to club members, parents etc at a price of either £5 or £10. There are 64 horses in total 64 horses sold at £5 = £320.00.Sold at £10 = £640.00.After each race is run the owner of the winning horse wins a prize, my advice here is try and avoid giving away cash maybe local pubs and restaurants will donate a meal for 2 not including beverages so the winning owners will bring in some income to the pub or restaurant who has provide the prize. Many organisations award a bottle of spirits or wine that you can purchase at a reasonable price to the winning owners. Again you may be able to sell the horses twice so each horse has a joint ownership and further increasing the potential income from the sale of the horses.
I will also print the owners of the horses in the personalised race programme and they can name their horses, this always creates a better atmosphere during the night when your guests look at the race programme to place their bets at the tote and see the names of the guests in the race programme.
DOWNLOAD RACELIST PROGRAMME PDF (TO BE FILLED IN)
(Step 5 - The Tote)
In each of the 8 races members and guests place bets on each of the 8 horses, they take a look at the personalised race programme and choose a horse 1-8 who they think might win the race. The tote then opens and bets are placed at £1 per bet. Guests can buy as many tickets as they wish on any particular horse to increase the amount they might win. They may also place bets on as many horses as they choose for e.g. £1 on horse number 1 £3 on horse number 4.
The tote is then closed when all guests have placed their bets and a member of the audience is chosen at random to choose the race to be shown.
I will provide a calculation sheet to record the number of tickets sold on each horse and the total number of bets taken on each race. I will explain how we calculate how much we pay out at the tote as simply as possible.
Let’s say there are 100 guests at your event and each guest places a single £1 bet the total number of bets taken on the race will be 100 and we will have £100 in cash in the tote. We then decide how much of the tote we are going to pay out either 50% or %75 depending on how successful we have been in gaining sponsorship and sale of horses prior to the night. I can advise you of the best options to take on the night .If we are paying out 50% £50 we keep £50 for the club funds and divide the number of winning tickets with the £50.00 we are paying out. If horse number 1 wins and 10 tickets have been sold on horse number 1 we divide £50.00 between the 10 winning tickets and we pay out £5.00 per ticket. Again I will help you with the calculations and advise on the amount to payout. Once we have paid out all of the winning tickets the tote re-opens for the next race.
I recently presented a race night and minimum bet was £2.00 per bet and the increase made a huge difference to the profit gained on the tote
I can provide you with a pre-printed sheet to gain the horse sponsors and owners. I have recently been encouraging organisations to also sell jockeys and trainers as well as the horses however bring the price down for the jockeys and trainers consider £5.00 for the jockey and £3.00 for the trainer and bring the value of the prize down accordingly.
(Step 6 - Dual Forecasts & Tri-Casts)
In addition to the tote further opportunities is available to make further funds by selling dual forecasts and tricasts.
Dual forecasts reversed can be run on each of the 8 races or as some organisations choose to run dual forecasts on races2, 4 and6.
How does a dual forecast work?
In an 8 horse race there are 56 possibilities horses can come 1st and 2nd past the post for e.g. horse number 7 wins followed by horse number 4. We sell each of the 56 options for a £1.00 and we decide how much we are going to pay out to the guests who choose correctly. I would suggest we pay out £30.00 and retain £26.00 for the fund.
A tri-cast can be run on the 8th race of the night
How does a tri cast work?
Tri- cast not many organisations manage to complete the tri cast but it is a wonderful way to raise a vast a mount on money. In an 8 horse race there are 336 possibilities horses can come 1st 2nd and 3rd past the post for e.g. horse number 6 wins followed by horse number 2 and horse 8 comes in 3rd place. If we sell all 336 options for a £1.00 we decide how much of the £336.00 we are going to pay out and I would suggest at least £100-£150.00 is paid to the lucky winner and the club will raise £236.00 or £186.00.The tri cast has always proved difficult to sell on the night, place it behind the bar of the venue where you are stageing your race night. But the finest example of selling the tri cast is cutting up the tri cast sheet into sections and members of the club or organisations sell to friends, family and work colleagues prior to the night
(Step 7 - The Auction Race)
The final race of the evening is the auction race and I as the compere will sell each of the 8 horses in the final race to the highest bidders. If each horse sells for £50.00 the total amount raised from the sale of the 8 horses will be £400.00. We run the final race and 50% is given to the owner of the winning horse and 50% is retained for the club funds.
In Addition to all of the above fundraising opportunities clubs and organisations have made further income from raffles, auction of promises, silent auctions, and Dutch auctions.
(Step 8) A Fantastic New Fundraising Idea - www.justgiving.co.uk
I have recently picked up another fantastic fund-raising idea from a race night i presented recently. Clubs, organisations and charities can easily set up their own web for the charity or organisation they are raising funds for. The website is www.justgiving.co.uk. Please visit the website and set up your own fundraising page for your club, organisation or charity. When completed this will allow members of your family and friends who are unable to attend your fund-raising event the opportunity to make a donation to your club, organisation or charity. You may also receive donations from work colleagues, past members and even anonymous individuals who would like to make a donation to your organisation from anywhere throughout the UK or even throughout the world.
The charity also claims gift aid from the government, so if a donation of £10.00 is made through www.justgiving.co.uk the government will add in the region of £2.00 to the £10.00 donation, further increasing the profits you make prior to, during and even after the fund-raising event. Gift aid from the government increases the more you are donated from individuals.
Go on log into www.justgiving.co.uk and set up a fund-raising page for your charity, every little helps. The race night i recently presented in Shrewsbury was to raise money by a group of young adults for 3 charities including a local hospice in Shrewsbury, a hospice in Glasgow and Help the Heroes by cycling from Shrewsbury to Paris.
When i arrived to set up donations before the 1st race was shown had reached a sum of £540.00 for the 3 charities ( variable amounts for each charity ) exactly a week later i visited www.justgiving.co.uk and was astonished to find out the amount of money now stands at £1,428.50p add this total to the amount we raised on the night the figure has now reached towards £2,500.00 and growing all of the time. I was amazed.
Take a look at the following web pages www.justgiving.co.uk/wheeldoitforcharity www.justgiving.co.uk/wheeldoitforcharity1 and finally www.justgiving.co.uk/wheeldoitforcharity2
I have just checked the total amount now raised the sum has now increased and totals £1,648.50p an increase of £220.00 over the past 3 days.
The cycle ride will take place on Wednesday 19th August. The final raised fugure will be announced 2 weeks after the completion of the event.
Its an absolutely fantastic fundraising opportunity and initiative COME ON GIVE IT A GO and visit www.justgiving.co.uk and set up your fundraising page for your fundraising fun casino or race night.
Sample Income & Expenditure for a Professionally Organised Race-Night
| EVENT SPONSOR | £275 |
| 100 TICKETS SOLD AT £10.00 PER TICKET | £1,000 |
| RACE SPONSORSHIP 8 RACES AT £50.00 PER RACE | £400 |
| SALE OF HORSES 64 HORSES AT £10.00 PER HORSE | £640 |
| SALE OF JOCKEYS | £320 |
| SALE OF TRAINERS | £192 |
| THE TOTE 100 BETS PER RACE LESS 50% PAYOUT | £450 |
| DUAL FORECASTS | £78 |
| TRI-CAST | £236 |
| THE AUCTION | £200 |
| TOTAL INCOME | £3,791 |
How much will a night at the races cost?
Our fees to present a professional night at the races range from £175.
I always insist the tote is run by members of the organisation as this creates a report with the guests and most importantly I am aware of companies who provide race nights free of charge for charities and they insist they run the tote, most of the money raised goes to presenter, a percentage to the owner of the race night company and very little goes to the charity they support.
I list below a number of companies and clubs who I have presented race nights over the years please do not hesitate in contacting them for a reference to the quality of the service I provide:
- Mr Paul Lenton - Downley Albion fc High Wycombe. I have presented race nights for Mr Lentons football club and raise £2500-£3000 annually - pjlenton@yahoo.co.uk
- Mr Steve Reece - The Beacon Cricket club, Shrewsbury Shropshire - Ssreecej@aol.com
- Mr Mike Hammond Tonbridge Wells Golf and Cricket Club, Tonbridge, Kent. I have presented race nights for Mikes clubs annually for 10 years Tel 01892 862720
- Mrs Jeanette Moore. Duckling’s pre school, Ellesmere, Shropshire - derby4life@btinternet.com
- Mrs Anita Manka - Nursery School fund-raising. Buckinghamshire - neatpie@hotmail.com
How Do I Enquire about a Horse Racing Night?
Please visit our enquiry page and send us as much information as possible.
How Do I Book a Horse Racing Night?
To confirm a booking, please complete the online booking form where you will be able to complete the booking form quickly and instantly.
We look forward to entertaining you!!
Testimonials
Hi Ian,
Thanks for your email last saturday. I am glad you enjoyed the night we certainly did!! Every one has given us great feedback and we were very impressed with the way you ran the evening.I have just been scraping together the last of the pennies! We took a total of £2545 with a profit of £1945 which is amazing considering there were only 90 people in the room.I have attached the costing sheet for your perousal!
The auction race was brilliant at £365!! My idea of the 3 xmas hampers for raffle prizes instead of the usual rubbish certainly generated more interest and cash, even if my sons girlfriend and her mother did win 2 of the hampers and my daughter won the other one !!!!??? The lads in the team certainly enjoyed doing the tote,and Jenny enjoyed giving out the prizes.This event made them feel more involved than your average quiz night!
They have gone up to Buxton tonight to start their trek training!
We are very keen to do another race night next year, just before the final payment is due for the expedition, probably in May. I am looking at the casino night as well and will start planning it after xmas for end feb early march?.I need a break from fund raising right now!
Anyway ,thanks again Ian , i enjoyed meeting and working with you and look forward to seeing you soon.
Hope you have a pleasurable and profitable christmas!
Best Regards,
Paul Meigh
Fundraising Race Night for Team Bolivia Challenge. Friday 7th November 2008. Whitacre Village Hall, West Midlands.
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Hi Ian,
I think well done to all concerned, to raise £2634 in 4 hours is no mean fete a big thank you to you for whooping up the crowd you were bang on the money when you spoke of how the evening would go the highs and the lows (when we would take the money).
Our plan was to raise money for Guide Dogs this year, but you never know, we may look at something else, but when we let the local official fund raising branches know what can be achieved they may wake up and smell the roses, obviously we will put them in touch with you straight away.
Thanks once again it was a pleasure working with you
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