Record crowds for Lions’ Donkey Derby

WESTBURY Lions’ Donkey Derby attracted over 900 people to the White Horse Country Park at the weekend, where nearly £4,000 was raised to help the Lions support local causes.

The event, held on Sunday 4th June, featured donkey races, with the Lions’ bookies open to take all bets, and children were able to have a go at being a jockey. In between the donkey races, entertainment for families included donkey rides, fun fair rides, a ‘have a go’ circus area, dance performances by Infinity Dance of Westbury, stalls, family games, refreshments, and face painting.

Nigel Coward, PR officer of Westbury Lions said, “We haven’t had an event this popular since before Covid! It’s been great seeing everyone smiling and enjoying themselves in the lovely weather. The most important thing is that the children had a good time and by the sounds of it, everyone had a great day.

“Thank you to everyone who came down to experience the fun on the day – money raised from the event will support local causes. Thank you also to everyone who helped out on the day, we couldn’t have done it without everyone pulling together.

“We’re looking to grow our organisation locally and to get more young people involved, to help secure the future of the club going forward so we can continue to hold great events such as this. If you would like to get involved, please do get in touch.”

The overall winner of the final Donkey Derby race, which saw all the winning jockeys from previous races take part, was seven-year-old Harmony Hershbein from Dilton Marsh, on the winning donkey, Road Runner.             Harmony said that the Donkey Derby served as training for herself as she has hopes to become a jockey when she is older.

“It felt very good to be the winner, but it was a bit scary being up high on the donkey!” she said. “I managed to win both the first and second races so I’m very happy about that. Hopefully, I’ll be taking part in the flat races in the Grand National in the future.”

The Westbury Lions can be found on Facebook by searching ‘Westbury Lions Club’ or you can visit their website at www.westburylions.org.uk