Celebrating 10 seasons providing security for Salisbury Racecourse!

Salisbury Racecourse is one of England’s most historic horseracing venues with racing having taken place at the site on the outskirts of the city for more than 400 years.

We’re proud to say 2024 marks our tenth season since Venture Security was awarded the security contract for the sporting venue, following a competitive tender process, and it remains a pleasure to support the racecourse with all its security requirements. 

Racecourse security

As one of the region’s most popular racing venues, Salisbury plays host to 15 race days each year with anywhere between 2,500 and 10,000 visitors in attendance, and boasts a range of bars, eateries and hospitality areas, along with offering live music and family entertainment.

Prior to working with Venture, the racecourse had used the same security provider for around 15 years, but following numerous issues, they decided to seek an alternative security partner.

With the safety of spectators of paramount importance, the racecourse required a security provider with experience in working on large-scale events and capable of providing between 45-60 trained security personnel each raceday.

With our extensive event security experience, we quickly saw many ways we could streamline processes, enhance reporting and communication, and make other security improvements that would add tangible value.

As well as providing a Safety Officer for the racecourse we:

• Assist in the event planning and logistics, including conducting risk assessments
• Provide fully trained and SIA licensed security operatives, who are trained in first aid and lost child procedures
• Manage all event staffing and crowd control for raceday meets
• Provide parking stewards who focus on customer service excellence for spectators

Tech-driven security operations

Racing is a unique entertainment experience with many different elements that need to be considered within the security planning, including the movement of spectators, owners and trainers, horses and jockeys, and racecourse employees. With spectators being free to flow around the site, with different areas being busy at different times depending on what’s happening, understanding crowd dynamics is essential.

Every year, we continue to enhance our crowd safety and security operations, including with the recent introduction of Halo (v5), the world’s most intelligent crowd safety, incident, and threat management platform. This enables us to control and command the safety and security on site as well as providing a fully auditable log of our decision making and activity in case it is ever required, such as at inquest.

Our team

Between 15 and 60 members of our staff are on site for each raceday, depending on the type and size of event, and we have stewards and security officers who have been with us every season since we took over the security contract, almost a decade ago! 

We continue to be incredibly proud of the high standards set by our team and over the years there have been many occasions where our stewards and officers have been praised for their reliability, quick thinking, calmness under pressure, and for going above and beyond.

One such incident saw our officer, Ian, resolve a potentially life-threatening situation. While on shift one weekend, an urgent message reached Ian that a customer was choking in one of the bar areas. He immediately attended the scene, where he found an older gentleman who was very distressed, leaning over a table choking.

Ian explained to the man that he was a first aider and with his consent, attempted to clear the blockage. Several attempts to help clear the obstruction by slapping him on the back failed, so Ian used the abdominal thrust method. While the first thrust didn’t clear the obstruction, the second one did - much to the man’s relief.  

And they’re off….

With the 2024 racing calendar now well underway, we look forward to continuing to support the racecourse with the smooth and safe running of another successful season.

To find out more about the racecourse, its history, or to book your next visit, head to: Salisbury Racecourse | Racing, Events and more

Interested in working for us?

We are always looking for good people to join us. To find out more, head to:

• For Security Officer roles (licensed) - Venture Job Vacancies | SIA Event Security Operatives (venturesec.co.uk)
• For Stewarding roles (unlicensed) - Job Vacancies | Event Stewards | Summer 2020 | Venture Security

Seeking expert security support for your event or venue?

Our award-winning team at Venture has been supporting local authorities, private and public sector organisations across the region for more than a decade. To find out more about our specialist security services, call us for a free, no-obligation chat on 01264 391538 or email [email protected].