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Prize-Money Boosted For 63 Maiden And Novice Races In The UK

The programming of over 60 high-value 2023 developmental races was announced by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) on Wednesday.

Consisting of maidens and novices with purses between £30,000-£50,000, the races will be funded by the BHA, Darley, Juddmonte, and the hosting racecourses. The objective of the prize-money boost is two-fold, with the aims of supporting horses at the beginning of their careers combined with supporting the domestic breeding industry and ensuring more quality young horses are retained to race in the UK. This initiative is intended to be the first step on the path towards a substantial enhancement of the values of Flat maiden and novice races, with discussions ongoing about further improvements for 2024 and beyond.

The races, run over a range of racecourses both large and small across Britain, are as follows:

20 x £30,000 2yo restricted maiden and novice races: supported by Juddmonte
21 x £30,000 2yo open maiden and novice races: supported by the BHA Development Fund
22 x £30,000-£50,000 3yo/3yo+ open maiden and novice races: supported by Darley and the BHA Development Fund

The highest-value races will be held over longer distances, in an effort to continue the production of quality stayers in Britain, while other races will have additional prize-money available for a range of horses, including less expensive horses and more affordable homebreds, also providing a boost for smaller owners and breeders. The full list of 63 races can be viewed here.

Richard Wayman, Chief Operating Officer for the BHA, said, “Well-funded development races provide an opportunity to boost returns to owners in the early stages of their horse's career, thereby potentially supporting the yearling market and, in doing so, assisting breeders at all levels.

“Juddmonte and Darley have been huge supporters of British Racing for decades and we are extremely grateful to them both for their financial assistance towards supporting this important part of the race programme. We look forward to working with them and other parties so that we can build on this significant first step in future years.”

Douglas Erskine Crum, CEO of Juddmonte, said, “We are delighted to be supporting this well targeted BHA initiative to enhance the competitiveness of the British racing and breeding industries. It is an effective kick-start of a long-term plan to enhance prize money substantially for developmental races, with all the benefits that will follow for breeders and owners.

“It is the right place to start for the British racing industry to become more competitive with other major breeding and racing jurisdictions around the world and to support our own breeders and owners.”

Sam Bullard, Director of Stallions for Darley, said, “For many years Darley has worked to support breeders through sponsorship and this new development fund initiative is doing just that, as well as setting a new improved prize-money level for maiden races.

“This, combined with our contribution to the EBF, demonstrates how we can work together for the benefit of racing and are delighted to be involved.”

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Prize-Money Boost for Newbury

Newbury Racecourse will offer a 16% increase in its prize-money for Flat and jump races throughout 2023 to £6.06 million, the racecourse announced on Tuesday.

With a further increase planned for next year, the upturn in funding is largely through a record executive contribution by the racecourse of £3.1 million, which has increased by £650,000 from 2022.

The G1 Al Shaqab Lockinge S. and The BetVictor London Gold Cup Handicap S. will both feature in the World Pool programme of races this year, representing the first time that Newbury has been involved in this lucrative venture. The latter will be run for £100,000 and the Lockinge meeting will increase by £95,000 and feature a new £75,000 handicap over a mile.

Furthermore, six novice and maiden races between April and September will carry a total prize fund between £30,000 and £50,000. Midweek National Hunt cards will receive an average of £20,000 in additional funding and all Grade 2 races will be worth £10,000 more than the minimum value.

“We are pleased to be able to announce a 16% increase in prize-money with a record executive contribution for the forthcoming 2023 season,” said Julian Thick, Chief Executive of Newbury Racecourse. “The financial challenges for horseracing and its participants are considerable, but we remain confident in the future of the racecourse and are happy to make this valuable investment at a time when racing needs it most. As an independent PLC we must run the racecourse on a sustainable basis and this year sees the largest amount the racecourse has ever invested in prize-money, with £3.1 million in executive contribution which represents a 26% uplift. We are extremely grateful to our sponsors and partners who continue to support Newbury and have helped us boost the prize-money on offer.”

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£3 Million Plus Prize Money Boost at The Jockey Club Racecourses

A prize money boost of over £3 million at The Jockey Club racecourses for the remainder of 2021 was announced on Tuesday.

This purse increase brings prize money to within 9% of pre-pandemic levels. Total prize money will exceed £42 million this year at all levels of the sport for the 15 racecourses operated by The Jockey Club. This amount is prior to additional funding from the industry's Appearance Money Scheme (AMS). These prize money increases are effective immediately, with the Cazoo Derby Festival gaining £65,000 and a £135,000 boost to Coral-Eclipse Day.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Jockey Club distributed only £30.5 million in prize money and racing was halted from mid-March until June. As The Jockey Club generates nearly 50% of its revenues from spectators and another 10% by staging conferences and similar types of events and neither of these were possible during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Jockey Club sustained an overall loss of £90 million. This trend continues into 2021. Pre-covid, The Jockey Club managed to increase its contribution to prize money by over 103% in the last decade to £26.4 million.

“One of our imperatives since the start of the pandemic has been to keep prize money values under constant review,” said The Jockey Club Chief Executive Nevin Truesdale. “The financial impact of coronavirus has been very significant indeed and it will take some time yet to recover. However, with some positive indicators around funding and with spectators starting to return, albeit in heavily restricted numbers at this point, we wanted to move quickly to announce this prize money increase.

“The biggest issue aside from losing so much of our revenue has been the constant uncertainty. If you could guarantee after the second lockdown that things would return permanently to normal, we would have been able to plan investments accordingly, but here we are well over a year into the pandemic and we are only just starting to welcome some racegoers back. Therefore, we continue to have to play the situation as it comes and ensure we would remain solvent if another lockdown occurred.

“I'd like to thank participants for the huge amount of patience they've shown and reassure them that The Jockey Club always treats prize money as an absolute priority, as I hope our track record and this announcement leaves no doubt about. We aim to get our prize money contributions fully back to pre-pandemic levels as soon as we realistically can.”

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Cazoo Derby Festival and Coral-Eclipse Day Receive Prize Money Boosts

The Cazoo Derby Festival on June 4-5 and Coral-Eclipse Day on July 3 both received an increase in prize money, The Jockey Club announced on Tuesday. Limited spectators returning to racecourses, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, was cited for the increases.

Held at Epsom Downs Racecourse, the Cazoo Derby Festival's purses were increased 12% across the 11 non-Group 1 races. None of the races over the two-day stand will be run for less than £40,000 and no handicaps will be worth less than £50,000. The Cazoo Derby is still worth £1,125,000, the G1 Cazoo Oaks will keep its purse of £375,000 and the G1 Coronation Cup S. has an unchanged prize money of £315,000.

At Sandown Park, prize money has been raised 18% to £900,000 for the entire card. The G1 Coral-Eclipse, part of the QIPCO British Champions Series, has an increased purse of £600,000, and the Coral Charge H. is now worth £75,000, an increase of £25,000. In addition, two races normally run the day prior to Coral-Eclipse Day have been moved to July 3-the £40,000 Coral Day H. and the £25,000 coral.co.uk H.

Andrew Cooper, Head of Racing and Clerk of the Course at Epsom Downs and Sandown Park, said: “It has been a difficult time for us at The Jockey Club, as it has been for everyone, and in several ways that remains the case. Racegoers generate around 50% of our revenues and so with them away from our 15 racecourses for so long our finances have been significantly impacted and remain so as the pandemic continues.

“However, now we are starting to be allowed a very limited number of spectators back, we are immediately taking the opportunity to boost prize money. Therefore I am pleased to confirm we are able to increase the value of the non-Group 1 races across both days of The Cazoo Derby Festival by 12% and with the prospect of more spectators at Sandown Park, we're committing to boost prize money for Coral-Eclipse Day by 18% above currently advertised values.

“Owners who put so much into the sport have been incredibly patient during the pandemic and this period of huge uncertainty. All of us at The Jockey Club are keen that as soon as the financial picture improves we see that reflected in prize money funding, which is always a top priority at Jockey Club Racecourses.”

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