Hamilton Park Racecourse | Horse Racing Free Tips

Vivien Currie, who has been chief executive of Hamilton Park Racecourse since 2008, will success Guy Henderson as chief executive of Ascot Racecourse following next year's Royal Ascot meeting.

Currie led the development of a commercial focus at Hamilton, which included improving the racecourse experience for participants and fans and the building of an award-winning hotel on course. Currie, who is trained as a chartered accountant and spent time with Ernst & Young and Damovo, was also previously chief executive of Livingston FC.

Sir Francis Brooke Bt., The Queen's representative and chairman at Ascot, said, “Vivien's career is a compelling combination of strategic, commercial and racecourse management experience. This made her the outstanding candidate for this role, in what was a thorough and wide-ranging search conducted with the help of Spencer Stuart. She is very familiar with the structure of the British racing industry both from the perspective of Hamilton Park and her terms on both the BHA and RCA boards. She has wide-ranging interests in sport and business and has also been a long term and active supporter of Marie Curie Cancer Care. The whole Board is much looking forward to welcoming her to Ascot.

“Vivien will join as CEO designate in April and work alongside Guy in the lead up to the delivery of Royal Ascot in the Platinum Jubilee Year. On 30th June she will take over as CEO when Guy retires at the end of what has been an outstanding tenure.”

Currie added, “I am delighted to have been chosen as the next chief executive of Ascot Racecourse and to be joining the team for what will be a very exciting year ahead. This role is a culmination of all the experiences I have had in my professional career to date and I am looking forward enormously to working with Guy in the build up to Royal Ascot in June.”

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Hamilton Park Racecourse's Tuesday card was called off following an incident prior to the 2:15 p.m. first race. Originally racing was delayed until 2:45 p.m., but another delay as emergency services attended to the incident soon occurred and the meeting was abandoned just after 3:35 p.m. The incident involved two RaceTech employees, who operate the cameras on site.

A statement from RaceTech said, “Following a serious incident prior to the first race at Hamilton Park involving a mobile elevated camera platform, two freelance camera operators, Robbie Cotgrave and Kit Campbell, have been seriously injured and taken to hospital. A full investigation is underway into the cause of the incident. Our thoughts and concerns are very much with our two colleagues at this time.”

“About half an hour before the first race an incident happened involving RaceTech operators and a hoist,” said Hamilton Park Clerk of the Course Harriet Graham. “Our emergency teams reacted immediately and then we needed to call the fire service and ambulances, so we had three fire engines on site and the police.

“It took them a long time to assess the situation and extract them and take them off to hospital. During this time the timeline became more and more extended. The decision was we would wait for CID to arrive to see if we could continue racing, but they indicated they wouldn't be making a decision in the short term.

“So, we held a stewards' inquiry and the decision was made to call off racing. Whilst that is a big decision, we felt we had no timeline for when we could start racing and the main thing is all our thoughts are with the two guys who have gone off to hospital for further assessment. Let's hope they are OK.

“In the bigger picture racing is secondary in this situation. A nasty accident has happened, two people are injured. They are having the best care they could have and received immediate attention.”

A Scottish Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman said, “We were alerted at 1:35 p.m. on Tuesday, June 29 to an incident at Hamilton Park Racecourse, Hamilton. Operations Control mobilised two appliances to the scene and using an aerial rescue pump firefighters rescued two male casualties who had fallen onto the roof of a vehicle before handing them into the care of the Scottish Ambulance Service. Crews left the scene after ensuring the area was made safe and there were no further reported casualties.”

The Scottish Ambulance Service added, “We received a call at 13:38hrs this afternoon to attend an incident at Hamilton racecourse. Two ambulances and two rapid response vehicles were dispatched to the scene.”

A spokesperson for British Horseracing Authority said, “Everybody at the BHA is concerned by the reports from Hamilton this afternoon and our thoughts are with the two RaceTech employees who have been injured. We wish both a full and speedy recovery.”

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