Fergal O'Brien: reduce summer jumps fixtures to halt record small field sizes

Fergal O’Brien, the pacesetter in the trainers' title race, is calling for a reduction of summer jumps fixtures to address shrinking field sizes, which hit a record low in June.

More than a quarter of jump races in Britain in June, 28.26 per cent, featured five runners or fewer, the highest proportion for that month since BHA records began in 1995 and following a record high proportion for May.

Average runners per race in June dropped to 6.99, down from 7.91 in 2019 and 8.98 in 2018, while in the last two months almost 22 per cent of the races featured an odds-on favourite.