Want to spend a day – and have your dog trained – at the Talking With Animals farm of Sarah Fisher and her vampire slaying partner Anthony Head? Fancy a horse-riding lesson with top National Hunt jockey Richard Johnson? Would you like to have a meal cooked exclusively for you by celebrity chef Paul Heathcote? Then Chester Racecourse is the place to be on Friday 20 August as these are just three of the prizes which are to be auctioned at the Thoroughbred Rehabilitation Centre's fund-raising dinner and dance.

After 12 years in rented premises, the TRC has finally found a suitable place to buy - a 125-acre former dairy farm near the Lancashire village of Pilling, just three miles away from its current accommodation in Nateby. Founder Carrie Humble explained: "The new farm will cost £1 million to buy and convert and we have already received many donations and pledges from some of the 4,000 Friends of the TRC.

We were also fortunate in receiving two legacies last year, which will contribute significantly towards the purchase costs. However, to make the dream a reality we still need to raise a substantial sum of money." The big fund-raiser is being held during Chester Racecourse's three-day Blue Square Mini-August Festival from Thursday 19 to Saturday 21 August.

Tickets are £70 each on sale at the TRC office - telephone 01995 605007 - and include a Buck's Fizz reception, three course meal and dancing until late. Sarah Fisher and Anthony Head hope to be there in person, work commitments allowing. The TRC has been helping ex-racehorses in need since 1991, being the original charitable organisation in Europe dedicated to these unique equines. The TRC provides a specialist environment of care, experienced rehabilitation and retraining. When the rehabilitation process is complete each horse is placed in a loan home appropriate to its own capabilities. The TRC then regularly monitors these loan homes for the rest of the horse's life.