Market Rasen Racecourse Colin '˜Bud' Booth to retire after 20 years

Colin Booth has announced his retirement as chairman of Market Rasen Racecourse at the end of the year after two decades in the position.
By The Newsroom
Published 28th Jul 2016, 09:10 BST
Updated 28th Jul 2016, 10:14 BST
Colin Bud Booth (right) with 2015 Grand National-winning trainer Dr Richard Newland at a Market Rasen meeting last month EMN-160728-090324002Colin Bud Booth (right) with 2015 Grand National-winning trainer Dr Richard Newland at a Market Rasen meeting last month EMN-160728-090324002
Colin Bud Booth (right) with 2015 Grand National-winning trainer Dr Richard Newland at a Market Rasen meeting last month EMN-160728-090324002

A new race will be run in November to honour Colin’s 20 years of service to the track.

Colin, popularly known as Bud, has held the position at the racecourse since 1996 and since 1974 has owned jump and flat racing horses.

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The Bud Booth Mares’ Listed Chase will be run on Thursday, November 3 and, is one of four additional Mares’ Listed Chases added to Britain’s racing programme by governing body, the British Horseracing Authority.

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“I am hugely grateful to the committee of Market Rasen Racecourse for running this new race in my name, said Colin, who will turn 70 this month. “It is a great honour that they have bestowed upon me.

“I have served on the committee of the racecourse as a director and then chairman for the last 25 years, and I have sponsored a race in memory of my late father for 42 years.”

The four new races is designed to provide incentives for people to own and train jumping mares.

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The number of mares’ races in the jumping calendar has grown from 182 in 2008/09 to 328 in 2015/16.

Nadia Gollings, general manager of Market Rasen Racecourse, added: “We are delighted to have been chosen by the BHA to stage this new and prestigious race.

“As Bud will be retiring as chairman at the end of 2016, the committee of the racecourse felt it was hugely appropriate that it should be run in his honour to mark his very many years of service to racing in this part of the world.

“Bud’s wisdom, knowledge and advice will be sorely missed by us all, but I am sure he will remain a regular visitor to the racecourse from next year onwards after he steps down.”

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Colin is the managing director of the Colin Booth Group, a holding company for a variety of businesses in Lincolnshire.

He added: “Market Rasen Racecourse has been a huge part of my life and, through my role, I have met some wonderful people who have become friends.

“Ironically, the late Victor Lucas who founded the racecourse and my father were firm friends, but I did not start my role until they had both died so it was an unbelievable coincidence that I became involved later.”