A romantic proposed to his girlfriend by sponsoring the name of a horse race to ask the big question.

Mark Moon, 48, from Newhaven, took his belle Lisa Westworth to Lingfield Park racecourse on Wednesday for what she thought was an ordinary day at the races.

But she soon discovered her day at the Surrey venue would be anything but ordinary after reading the name of the second race – the ‘Will You Marry Me Lisa Westworth Maiden Auction Stakes’.

Thoughtful Mark, who has been with Lisa for four months after meeting in Brighton, said a trip to the races had been one of the couple’s “first nice days out” and proposing at Lingfield “seemed right.”

After a “few tears,” Lisa, 40, agreed to his hand in marriage.

 

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Mr Moon said: “I didn’t pick the winner of the race unfortunately but I feel like I’ve won the biggest prize of all.

“It was emotional, there were a few tears.

“She found out about an hour before the race as it was called out on the tannoy.“Then she had a look at the race card and luckily she said yes.” He added: “We’re both keen race goers and when I found out I could sponsor a race, I went for it.

“I think we’ll be getting married next year, we’re really happy.”

The names of horse races are normally sponsored by local businesses hoping to promote their firm, but Nicky Adams, racing and sponsorship executive at Lingfield Park, said Mark and Lisa’s engagement via the naming of a race could have been the first ever at the course.

She said: “We’ve been welcoming visitors to the course since 1890 so there may well have been proposals of this nature back then.

“But as for recent history, as far as I remember there hasn’t been anything like this.

“We wish them all the best.”