Making a Difference: 10 Years of Community at Chelmsford City Racecourse

Since opening their doors in 2015 Chelmsford City Racecourse has focused on building strong community relationships, through events, fundraising, and volunteering for Racing Together’s Community Day. Their engagement extends to working with local schools, children, vulnerable and disadvantaged groups of people and the Armed Forces, providing opportunities for people to experience racing.Young people are our future racegoers and at the racecourse they regularly engage with children of all ages through a partnership with Racing to School hosting educational days for over 180 children, while their family fun days have created lasting memories. Family Fun days alone have enabled the racecourse to support various charities, contributing over £33,000 to beneficiaries Help for Heroes, Havens Hospices and Essex & Herts Air Ambulance.

Other fundraising initiatives have amounted to raising over £70K in the last five years for many charities in the local and wider communities.
Continuing their commitment to inclusivity, they are proud to be in their fourth year of hosting initiatives such as ‘Carers Week’ and ‘Autism in Racing’ offering meaningful experiences for vulnerable families and working with small local charities such as POP Essex who have provided tremendous support. In 2024, they hosted their second Remembrance Raceday to honour and support the Armed Forces, proudly raising over £14,000 since August 2023, with donations benefiting the Royal British Legion and local limbless veterans’ charity Blesma. These are now firmly placed on the racecourse’s calendar as legacy events.

Their dedication to community engagement has also earned national recognition, with their initiatives being named finalists in the RCA Showcase Awards for Diversity & Inclusion and Racing Together Community categories in both 2023 and 2024. Proud to be recognised and honoured to have received a highly commended award for their unique Remembrance Raceday at 2024’s award ceremony.

2025 marks 10 years at Chelmsford City and as part of their 10th anniversary celebrations, as well as looking back to past achievements they are looking ahead with new initiatives for 2025 dedicated to making a meaningful impact through charitable and sustainable efforts. Their goals for the year include supporting 10 carefully selected charities, each with a target of raising £10,000, hosting 10 non-raceday community events, organising 10 off-site volunteering days, and implementing 10 sustainability initiatives.

Committed to achieving these goals and continuing the success with an innovative, forward-thinking approach, the team will explore creative and unique ways to bring this vision to life. As a team they will be taking on group and individual challenges, hosting a charity gala dinner, holding raffles and a fantastic auction, along with welcoming the charities to the racecourse on key racedays, supporting them in engaging with the public to help with their fundraising.

From across diverse sectors the carefully selected organisations are a mix of equine charities and support for local charities that address issues likely to have an impact or touch the lives of people in our community. These include:

Dementia UK – Someone in the world develops dementia every 3 seconds, and one in two of us will be affected in their lifetime by caring for someone with dementia or developing it ourselves.

The Helen Rollason Cancer Charity – Helen Rollason offers a range of care and support services in Essex using complimentary therapies, counselling, mindfulness, and yoga, for people facing a cancer diagnosis.

Riding for the Disabled – RDA provides therapeutic horse riding, equestrian vaulting and carriage driving lessons to people of all ages with developmental and physical disabilities.

The Presidents Sporting Club – An Essex based charity that supports children with special needs in the community to get into sport.

Racing to School – Provides free educational and fun days out for schools at local racecourses.

The Mayors Charity – The Mayors charity supports a local charity during her term of office, currently this is Farleigh’s Hospice providing palliative care.

RoR (Retraining of Racehorses) – RoR helps retired racehorses, safeguarding their wellbeing following retirement by finding them safe and loving new homes.

The Injured Jockeys Fund – IJF provides support to improve the lives of injured jockeys and their families.

Sanctus Homeless Charity – A Chelmsford based charity supporting the homeless and vulnerable people in Essex.

BLESMA – Limbless Veterans Charity – An Armed Forces charity based in Chelmsford dedicated to assisting serving and ex-service men and women who have suffered life changing limb loss or use of a limb, an eye or sight.

Jo Flaherty Head of Community & Charity said “Our team at Chelmsford City Racecourse may be small but our passion is undeniable. With the support of the racecourse, we take great pride in our past achievements, building some incredible relationships with the community, local leaders and notable figures including celebrities, sporting heroes and the Mayor of Chelmsford.

We are excited to work with our 10 amazing charities that depend on public generosity to support our local community. Through a strong partnership, we aim to work collaboratively toward our shared goal of important causes throughout 2025 and are committed to doing everything we can to give back, achieve our fundraising target and make a meaningful impact.

If any of our chosen charities hold a special place in your heart, or you are able to support us in any way, we encourage you to get in touch. Additionally, we would love to hear and share any personal stories from the public along the way”