A GWENT County race day fundraiser has raised more than £12,000 for the Royal Welsh Show.

The race day was held at Chepstow Racecourse and raised £12,335.49 towards this year's Royal Welsh Agricultural Show. Gwent is the feature county for the Royal Welsh 2015 and is tasked with fundraising money for a new equine centre at the showground in Builth Wells.

The history of the feature county dates back to the show's beginning when the location changed year on year. Each year a county in Wales is selected to raise funds for a particular project for the Royal Welsh Show.

Thousands attended the family day at the racecourse and around 260 people attended the lunch and auction. The auction raised £6,520 and included tickets to the Royal Welsh Show, a shooting day and a three night stay at Llancayo Windmill near Usk.

David Morgan, 73, president of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society, said: "It was a fantastic - everybody had a lot of fun. It was a wonderful day which so many people enjoyed. It's tremendous the amount we have raised and David Powell did a fantastic job at organising the day.

"The fundraising is going really well, we have had great support from everybody. We are all having a lot of fun and raising quite a bit of money - we just want to raise as much as we can."

He estimates that they have raised around £60,000 so far.

Glyn Jones, Royal Welsh feature county committee member from Chepstow, said: "It was a fantastic day.

"The sponsored counties idea for the Royal Welsh Showground goes back a number of years. One main reasons the Royal Welsh has been flourishing is down to grassroots support.

“As we all know Royal England sadly closed as it did not have that kind of grassroots support."

There will be a mini Royal Welsh Show fundraiser held in Chepstow on May 23 and a tractor race in Usk on May 31.

For more information contact David Morgan on 07976240288.