HEREFORD Racecourse's executive director looks back at the last meeting of 2016.

LAST week saw us bring the curtain down on racing at Hereford Racecourse this year with our fourth and final fixture of 2016.

A crowd of over 2,700 supported the inaugural Christmas Jumper Raceday and what fun it was.

There was a real end of term party feel, with a superb atmosphere of everyone out for a good time.

It was great to see so many racegoers entering into the spirit and whether old and young, Christmas jumpers could be spotted around the entire racecourse.

Finian’s Oscar was an impressive winner of the Novices’ Hurdle for in form trainer Colin Tizzard and it will be no surprise to see the horse go on to greater things this season.

The horse was bought earlier this year for a whopping £250,000 and it is nice that trainers are supporting Hereford by running promises horses of that calibre at the racecourse.

Champion Jockey Richard Johnson fittingly got on the scoresheet and rode his first winner since our reopening, in the very last race of this year.

Richard had three bruising falls the previous weekend. and the fact he was riding at all shows the remarkable strength, determination and resilience of Jump jockeys.

“Hereford is a racecourse I am very fond of and it was great to finally ride a winner back there," commented the champion jockey.

"I have great memories from my earlier riding days and it is just fantastic to have the racecourse back open again.

The team will now embark on a busy schedule of fixtures between January and March.

We race three times in January, the first meeting being Wednesday, January 4, and we are running an online promotion whereby if you buy a ticket for January 4 you can also buy one half price for the following fixture on January 11.

Then, we have our inaugural Winter Ladies Day on Sunday, January 22, which will be the first weekend fixture since our reopening.

If you are planning to come racing regularly next year do consider our Season Ticket which offers admission to all 11 fixtures for £160.