British prize-money set to exceed £170 million for 2022

Prize-money in Britain this year will rise to a record figure of more than £170 million, according to the Racecourse Association. The increase comes amid mounting concerns over historically low field sizes, rising inflationary costs and whether the nation is becoming a nursery for horses subsequently sold abroad.

The RCA, which represents British racecourses, anticipates that prize-money in 2022 will eclipse the record total of £166.3m offered in 2018, with the rise equating to a 2.2 per cent increase from that figure.

Total prize-money in Britain stood at around £161m in 2019, but the following year – with no racing for more than two months and no paying spectators for much of the year due to the coronavirus pandemic – that figure fell to £94.3m, before bouncing back to £153.4m in 2021.