Catterick forced to delay Oops A Daisy Handicap after BHA 'error' results in two races scheduled for the same time

A rare mix-up over race times at Catterick and Kempton on Wednesday has resulted in the former delaying its final contest, divison two of the fittingly-named Oops A Daisy Handicap, by five minutes.

Originally, both Catterick’s division two 6f handicap and Kempton’s opening mile novice had been due off at 6pm on Racing TV.

However, the BHA has requested Catterick delay its final race by five minutes in order to avoid a clash, while an investigation into how both contests were scheduled for the same time will take place.

A BHA spokesperson said: "When divisions were added to today’s cards, an error occurred that resulted in two races being due to go off at the same time. We will review how this came about and have delayed the start of Catterick’s final race by five minutes to avoid the clash."

The 6f handicap on Catterick's card was split into two divisions and the final race will now go off at 6.05pm.

Clerk of the course Fiona Needham confirmed the new race time, and said: "It was nothing to do with us, it obviously came from the BHA, but we’ve been asked to delay our last race by five minutes. Declarations were on Sunday and I think it was just an error."

Kempton’s clerk of the course Barney Clifford added: "We were always scheduled at 6pm, so I’m guessing Catterick must have divided their last race. Whatever happened, there should be an allocated 35 or 40 minutes interval."

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