Arc robustly denies accusations of declaring horses owned by subsidiary company in order to divide races

Racecourse group Arena Racing Company (Arc) has robustly denied accusations it is declaring horses owned by a subsidiary company to ensure races are divided, thereby generating additional media rights revenue.

Last week, syndicate manager and former Racehorse Ownership Association board member Sam Hoskins posted on X that the Arc-owned Amphitheatre Racing Limited had appeared to declare a horse at Brighton, who was later a non-runner, “to make the race divide”.

The horse, Rohilla, is one of ten horses to have raced for Amphitheatre Racing since April along with others who had previously raced for the Arc-operated Southwell Racing Club. All the horses are trained by Scott Dixon, who is an Arc tenant at Southwell and Wolverhampton.

A spokesman for Arc said it did support its race programme with its own horses, but denied it had any oversight into where horses ran.

He said: "Arc owns a number of horses, the majority of which are trained on site at either Southwell or Wolverhampton. They are clearly purchased with the intention of supporting the programme across Arc racecourses and field sizes in the core racing product alongside other benefits, such as the Arc Racing Club. This is an embryonic strategy that we expect to expand over the next one to two years.

"The change in ownership from Southwell or Wolverhampton Racing Club to a wholly owned subsidiary in Amphitheatre Racing Ltd is purely in response to the burden of administration of ownership, which we will be happy to revisit once Racing Digital simplifies the process.

"None of the trainers associated with these horses has, or ever will be, instructed as to which specific races they should run them in. We will continue to promote the successful Arc Racing Club as a unique benefit of annual membership of our racecourses."

Wolverhamption: another Arc-owned trackCredit: Steve Davies

He added: "Insofar as our horses can support field sizes and any races that may divide, it has been demonstrably shown that this is of positive economic benefit to the industry through increased levy yield, return to the participants involved as well as, of course, Arena Racing Company."

In response to questions from the Racing Post, Dixon said: "I have never had any instruction from anyone from Arena racing as to where, when or how horses are ran, or placed. This is solely done by myself to where I feel the horses will have the best chance to win races."

Amphitheatre Racing was established in 2022 with its controlling party listed at Companies House as being Arena Racing. The latest accounts filed for the year ending December 31, 2023 shows total losses for the company of £887,295.

So far this year, eight horses have run in either the ownership of Amphitheatre Racing or the Southwell Racing Club in divided races.

In total, they have competed in 27 races that have been divided and on 20 occasions the host courses – all owned by Arc – have staged the maximum number of races permitted on one card, either nine during the all-weather season ending on March 31, or eight in the period since then. The horses have raced a further 29 times in races that have not been divided.

Races are permitted to be divided if at least 18 horses are declared, or if 16 or more horses are declared on the all-weather outside the Flat turf season.

Each divided race brings in additional revenue to the host racecourse via media rights payments from bookmakers, alongside funding for prize-money and regulatory services. Once a race has been divided it remains so even if there are non-runners.

Previously published figures suggest racecourses receive between £10,000 and £12,000 per race in media rights payments, although the Racecourse Association has disputed the amount. As such, the horses who have run this year could have earned Arc between £270,000 and £324,000 extra revenue.

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