Fontwell to offer £300 travel allowance in wake of small chase fields

Fontwell is seeking to entice trainers and owners to support the track's chases with a £300 travel allowance to strengthen uncompetitive fields.

The trial is running until the course's summer break in June and applies to runners in chases only and to horses who are based outside a 120-mile radius of the West Sussex venue.

The course averaged just five runners in chases during 2022 and the the travel allowance is being trialled as a means of not only boosting field sizes but trying to diversify the trainers and owners who are patronising the track.

Philip Hide, clerk of the course at Fontwell, said: "The background to this is that we have been struggling, like a lot of tracks, for runners for a while now. It's clear that our chases have had little support outside of the same people who always try to support us as best they can.

"It could be the case that people are regarding it as prohibitive to go outside their comfort zone on travel, so we've started to look at ways we can change that and we're hoping this puts Fontwell into their thought processes."

Fontwell is also among the Arena Racing Company-owned courses that is offering a minimum of £75,000 in total prize-money per meeting until at least the end of April, but Hide feels there is still a barrier in place to some engaging with the racing programme at the track.

"Every clerk at every course in the country is looking at the data and at what they can do,” he said. “In my own view it’s hard to look at races and say that putting an extra four grand on prize-money is going to make a difference.

"Hopefully [the travel allowance] will help increase interest and we do as much as we can here for people, if they come then there's always an increased chance of them coming back again in my experience."

Hide emphasised the travel allowance was a trial and that there was scope to change to the amount offered or those who were able to claim the money back, which will be automatically handled through trainers' and owners' Weatherbys accounts.

Fontwell is due to host a seven-race card on Sunday, for which 191 horses have been entered, including 56 in the track's three chases.

Hide said he was encouraged by the entry levels, although he pointed out that jumps fixtures had been lost in Britain recently as a result of the weather which might have also contributed to the extra entries.

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