CHEPSTOW and Hereford Racecourses have a new General Manager in Richard Holland.

He has taken over from Simon Lee who has moved to become Stadium Director of Glamorgan County Cricket Club.

The 35-year-old's career background is in hotel management. He also spent time with the airline BMI at Heathrow Airport.

Until 2007 he was Vice-President of Corporate Relations and Sales at the Celtic Manor in south east Wales, where the 2010 Ryder Cup will be held, and most recently ran his own event management business.

A keen sports fan, he is the chairman of the testimonial committee of Jamie Robinson, the centre for Cardiff Blues rugby union team who has been capped 23 times by Wales.

Richard, who lives in Cardiff, said: "When the opportunity came up to join Chepstow and Hereford Racecourses, I jumped at it. Combining my experience of event management, sales and conferencing in the sporting arena was too good to miss."

He is already looking forward to his first major horse racing event – Coral Welsh National day on Saturday 27th December.

As well as staging more than 40 racing fixtures each year, Chepstow and Hereford Racecourses both run strong event and venue hire businesses.

The two racecourses are part of Northern Racing. The group operates nine current racecourses – Bath, Brighton, Chepstow, Fontwell Park, Great Yarmouth, Hereford, Newcastle, Sedgefield and Uttoxeter, accounting for approximately 14% of all fixtures run in Britain – and the tenth will be Ffos Las in west Wales which is scheduled to open in June 2009.