One of the biggest point-to-point events in the country has been cancelled due to a lack of horses.
Organisers had spent six months preparing for the Easter Saturday meeting at Charing and were looking forward to welcoming thousands of spectators.
But their hard work has come to nothing and instead they are left counting the cost of the cancellation.
Forty entries were needed to make the meeting viable but by yesterday’s closing date, numbers had dropped to 14.
Half of those were in the ladies’ race, leaving seven to cover the other four scheduled races. “It’s just not enough,” said a committee spokesman.
“We did try to fill the event with a bird of prey display, terrier racing, a dog show, a fun fair, a shopping village, a beer tent and all that, but you can’t put on a racing day with no racing.
“People wanted it to go ahead but we made a decision to pull the plug, which is a shame because so much work has gone into it, and the Jockey Club advised us to cancel as well when we got the numbers in.
“A new committee had taken over the point-to-point event itself, so we started with a blank canvas.
“We had to get sponsors, we tried to up the prize money and offered to refund horse entry money on the day, we tried so much, but it just hasn’t worked.
“Charing is a huge event in point-to-point racing, one of the biggest on the calendar.
"Being Easter and the first holiday after Christmas, people want to come out.
“But there’s a meeting in Essex on Friday, we were Saturday and there’s Aldington on Monday, so the fixtures are too close together and there aren’t the horses in the south east.
“If you go to East Anglia and up to Leicestershire, they’ve got 14, 15, 16 runners in a race. We just don’t have the horses to do that.
"It’s
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