LADIES' days are one of the great success stories of the horse racing industry, helping to boost attendances for the country's second most popular spectator sport.

Even one of the four days of the Cheltenham Festival was devoted to the fairer sex for the first time in 2007. Ladies' days and evenings are held annually at racecourses all over Britain.

Women make up 30% of crowds and, with average attendances at jumping fixtures set to take over those going to Flat racing meetings in 2007, that's all good news for rural National Hunt tracks.

As Rod Street, the group managing director of Hereford Racecourse's owner Northern Racing, says: "At the races, women are treated with courtesy and respect. They're treated as ladies'. It's old fashioned chivalry, and it sets this sport apart in the most wonderful way."

Hereford Racecourse's annual Ladies' Day is the next meeting, on Sunday, June 3, and it features the major race of the season - the £15,000 K W Bell Construction Handicap Hurdle.

After the horse racing has finished, tribute band Counterfeit Abba will be playing on the Pimms Lawn, turning the day into Hereford Racecourse's party in the paddock'.

The special £35 packages have sold out, but there are plenty of general admission tickets - £16 each - for the racecourse's most popular racing occasion of the year.

Meanwhile, the 2007/8 jump racing season picked up for local training yards at the weekend when Kings Caple trainer Venetia Williams enjoyed a winner in a handicap hurdle at Uttoxeter Racecourse.

For Zacharova, sent off the 7-2 favourite, it was a first victory on a British racecourse, and the horse also provided conditional jockey Liam Treadwell with his first winner of the new campaign, too.

The first local winner for the season was from Kevin Morgan's stables at Little Marcle at the end of April.

*The next racing at Hereford Racecourse is Ladies' Day on Sunday, June 3. Gates open at 12 noon for a first race time of 2.10pm. The final race is at 5.10pm and Counterfeit Abba will be performing from 5.45pm. Admission into the Grandstand Enclosure is £16. Accompanied children under 16 enter free of charge. More information can be found on web site www.hereford-racecourse.co.uk or by telephoning the racecourse on 01432 273560.