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Fundraising made fun

Charity Race Nights

A fully hosted evening that raises serious money while your supporters have a brilliant night out. No experience needed, no upfront cost, nothing for you to run on the night. I bring the lot, I host it start to finish, and your cause keeps the proceeds.

Book your night, 07593 659323 Check a date
30 years hosting race nights £100,000s raised for good causes No licence needed Fully insured & PAT tested Five star rated on Google
£1,000–£3,500
Typically raised in a night
£450
All in, one simple fee
£0
Upfront to book
Where the money comes from

Several ways to raise, all night long

A quiz or a raffle leans on one big push. A race night raises money in stages across the whole evening, so the atmosphere and the total keep climbing together. Six races and a live auction race to finish means seven chances for the room to get involved, and seven chances for the pot to grow.

1
Before the night

Sponsors & pre-sell

Local businesses sponsor a race for £50, which is cheap advertising for them and pure profit for you. Then every horse gets an owner at £10 on the pre-sell sheets I give you, which is where most of the pre-sell money comes from. Naming them is half the fun, and it all lands weeks before anyone walks through the door. Some groups also sell a trainer and a jockey on each horse at £5 apiece, though that is the exception rather than the rule.

Warms up the pot
2
Across the six races

The tote

This is the engine room. Bets are £1 a go, so nobody feels priced out, and that is exactly why the volume gets big. Half the pot goes back out to the winners and half stays with your cause, race after race. At one recent night, forty-five guests placed fourteen hundred bets between them.

The engine room
3
The big finish

Auction race & raffle

For the seventh and final race the horses go under the hammer, and the bidding is always where the room gets loudest. Draw your raffle alongside it and you finish on a high with the total still climbing right to the line.

The grand finale
A real night

One night, forty-five people

Rather than a made-up example, here are the actual figures from a golf club fundraiser I ran in March 2026, taken straight off my tote system. Forty-five guests in the room. Nothing rounded, nothing flattered.

Ticket sales, forty-five at £20£900
The tote across the racing, after payouts£932
Auctioning the horses£303
Owners, sixty-four sold at £5£320
Race sponsors, three at £20£60
Raffle, not run£0
Trainers and jockeys, not sold£0
Gross raised£2,515
Less my all-in fee−£450
Straight to the cause£2,065

Two things worth noticing. Bets are £1 a go, and those forty-five people placed fourteen hundred of them across the evening, which is why the tote is the biggest line on the sheet. Then look at the zeros, and at the prices. Sponsors went at £20 rather than the £50 I suggest, owners at £5 rather than £10, and there was no raffle and no trainers or jockeys on the sheet. Even so, a room of forty-five cleared over two thousand pounds. Price it the way I recommend and fill the sheets, and the same evening is worth several hundred more. That is the part I help you with.

Sussex Race Nights hosts and guests enjoying a fundraising race night
The atmosphereCheering, groaning, and a room fully behind your cause
Everything handled

What you get for one simple fee

  • Professional host for the whole evening
  • Six pre-recorded races plus a live auction race
  • Fully compliant tote and betting system
  • All paperwork and legal compliance covered
  • Professional PA and big-screen projection, my own kit
  • Pre-sell and sponsorship sheets ready to go out
  • A planning call and honest advice on your total
  • Fully insured and PAT tested equipment
  • Setup, running and pack-down, all done for you
  • One person from first call to last box in the van
Guests placing tote bets at a Sussex Race Nights fundraising event with the race board on screen
Nobody is left guessing

What you do, and what I do

The commonest worry I hear is that a race night sounds like a lot of work for a committee that is already stretched. It really is not. Here is the honest division of labour.

Your side

Six easy jobs

  • Pick a date and book the room
  • Sell the tickets to your own people
  • Ask a few local businesses to sponsor a race, I will show you how
  • Send round the pre-sell sheets I give you
  • Rustle up a couple of raffle prizes
  • Turn up and actually enjoy your own event
My side

Everything else

  • Arrive early and set the whole thing up
  • Brief you and your helpers so nobody is winging it
  • Host and compère the full evening
  • Run the tote and pay out the winners
  • Handle the compliance and the paperwork
  • Pack down and leave the room as I found it
Getting ready

Six weeks to the off

You do not need six weeks, but it is a comfortable run-up and it is where the bigger totals come from. This is the plan I talk most organisers through.

Six to eight weeks out

Lock the date

Book the room and give me a call to check I am free. Autumn and spring Saturdays go early, and there is nothing to pay to hold a date.

Five weeks out

Get the sponsors in

Six races, six local businesses. A quick ask over the counter lands far better than an email, and most will say yes to supporting a cause their customers care about.

Four weeks out

Tickets on sale

Sell by the table rather than by the seat. A table of friends bets more, shouts louder and fills the room faster than singles ever do.

Two weeks out

Pre-sell the horses

The sheets go round the pub, the clubhouse and the office. Owners at £10 a horse is the one that matters, and forty-eight of them soon mounts up. Let people name their own horse, it always causes a laugh and it gets them invested long before they arrive.

The week of

Last bits

Raffle prizes in, running order agreed, and I will ring you to walk through exactly how the evening will go.

On the night

Let go of it

I arrive early, set up and take it from there. Your job is to enjoy the night your supporters turned up for.

A night in pictures

See it in full swing

Two Sussex Race Nights hosts in jockey silks holding toy horses at a fundraising race night
Guests enjoying a Sussex Race Nights fundraising race night
A lively room at a Sussex Race Nights charity race night
Guests watching the racing on the big screen at a fundraising night
A packed crowd getting stuck into a Sussex Race Nights event
Sussex Race Nights host with the company logo
Good to know

Charity race night questions

Is a charity race night legal?
Yes. The races are pre-recorded films, so there is no betting on live sporting events. Run as fundraising for a good cause, using the compliant tote system I bring, it sits comfortably within the rules for non-commercial gaming at a charity event. You do not need a licence, and I handle the paperwork. There is more detail on the is a race night legal page if your committee wants the full picture.
How much can we realistically raise?
Most groups raise between £1,000 and £3,500 in a single evening. Four things move the number: how many guests you get through the door, how many race sponsors you line up, how much you pre-sell before the night, and how up for it your crowd is. Charities with an engaged supporter base regularly reach the upper end. I will give you a realistic figure for your event rather than a flattering one.
How many guests do we need for it to be worth doing?
It works from around forty people upwards, and it really sings between eighty and a hundred and fifty. Below forty the tote pot gets thin, so I would usually suggest a fun money format instead and we keep the focus on the entertainment. Just tell me your likely numbers and I will say honestly whether it stacks up.
We have never run one before. Is it hard work?
No, and most of my bookings come from committees who had never run one either. You book a room, sell tickets to your own people and hand out the pre-sell sheets. I do the rest, including the bits organisers dread, such as the betting, the payouts and the compliance. Plenty of groups now run one every single year.
What do we need to provide?
A room, tables and chairs, and a keen crowd. That is genuinely it. I bring the PA, the screen, the races and all the kit. If your venue has a bar and you can gather a few raffle prizes, even better, but neither is essential.
How long does the evening last?
The racing runs around two hours, with the auction race and prize giving at the end. Most nights sit comfortably inside a typical function slot, and I am flexible around your bar times, your catering and anything else you have planned.
How far in advance should we book?
Six to eight weeks gives you a comfortable run-up and the best shot at a big total. Saturdays in the autumn and the run-up to Christmas go first, so if you have a date in mind it is worth a quick call now. It costs nothing to check availability and nothing to hold a date.
How far do you travel?
Based in Steyning, West Sussex, I run race nights across East and West Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire as standard, from Brighton, Worthing and Chichester to Guildford, Portsmouth and Winchester. I also travel UK wide for larger events, so if you are a little further out, just ask. I am usually happy to make the trip for the right night.
“
He takes the strain out of the evening, and suggests innovative ways to maximise the impact of the event.
Martin Lee-Pollitt · Rotary Club of Steyning & Henfield Read more from organisers

Ready to raise money and have a laugh doing it?

Tell me your date, your cause and rough numbers, and I will take care of the rest. No deposit to check availability.

Call 07593 659323 Check a date