Fixtures revealed until April 2021 but funding levels branded 'unsustainable'

Fixtures for the first four months of 2021 have been revealed but while the Levy Board will provide increased funding it warned that those levels will be "unsustainable" beyond the short term.

The BHA has published the majority of next year's fixture list, although only the fixtures from January to the end of April and the dates for those involving Pattern races are set in stone.

The Levy Board's funding package will guarantee minimum prize-money values at pre-Covid levels for January to April but cautioned levels would have to return to normal in due course, especially with concerns over the increased number of betting shop closures.

Last year the sport brought in Portas Consulting to assist in analysing the economics of the sport, including the fixture list, as part of Project Enable, an initiative which has helped shape the 2021 schedule.

Professional punter Patrick Veitch argued in Wednesday's Racing Post that there was no evidence to support the size of the "bloated" fixture list, but Racecourse Association chief executive David Armstrong claimed Project Enable provided the case against reducing the number of meetings.

The BHA said the fixture list had been developed with a view to maximising revenue for the sport and its participants, while safeguarding participant wellbeing and taking account of the horse population.

Overall there will be 448 meetings from January to the end of April, three fewer than were scheduled for the same period in 2020.

There will be 246 jumps meetings, three more than in 2020, while Flat meetings will fall by six to 202.

However, the number of Flat races will remain unchanged. While the number of all-weather fixtures will be reduced, the length of cards at floodlit meetings will be extended to include up to nine races.

In total, 1,366 fixtures have been provisionally scheduled for 2021 so far compared to the 1,491 originally planned for this year. Of this year's figure, 233 were BHA-owned fixtures and the governing body said it had not been decided how they would be allocated next year.

BHA chief operating officer Richard Wayman

BHA chief operating officer Richard Wayman said the publication of the fixture list would provide clarity for the sport.

He added: "We continue to discuss with government a consistent approach to allowing sporting events to go ahead with spectators as soon as possible but in developing the fixture list for the beginning of next year, we have focused on creating a schedule that maximises off-course betting turnover and, where possible, reduces the costs of staging fixtures.

"In doing so, we have also sought to reduce the pressures on racing’s workforce of servicing the fixture list including by staging extended cards on the all-weather with a corresponding decrease in fixture numbers."

Wayman said they were grateful to the Levy Board for its financial support, which has helped make up some of the shortfall in contributions to prize-money lost due to the financial blow racecourses have faced from lack of crowds.

In total, the Levy Board has allocated £31.9 million for the first four months of the year of which £24.4m goes to prize-money, a 46 per cent increase on the normal level, the remainder going to regulatory and other grants.

Levy Board chairman Paul Darling said: "Our financial outlook would need to worsen significantly in the coming months to cause us to revisit what we are announcing today. However, the wider national situation, including the impact on licensed betting offices, will inevitably require ongoing consideration."

He added: "As has been the case since June, this level of funding from the board is unsustainable beyond the short term. We continue to urge the industry’s constituents to work together on future plans, recognising that our contribution will have to return to more normal levels in due course."

Paul Darling: chairman of the Levy Board

In his article, Veitch called for the sport to "act decisively and produce a greatly trimmed fixture list that prioritises promoting customer appetite".

However, Armstrong said Project Enable had shown a ceiling of no more than 1,500 fixtures was preferable, which could then be optimised by adding extra races into fixtures in the right places.

He added: "In the Enable project we tested scenarios like what would happen if you had 200 fewer fixtures and the result of that demonstrated that it is far less attractive commercially to the sport to reduce fixtures dramatically.

"So although we are probably never going to sit in the same room as Patrick and compare notes and models, we as a sport now have a very solid mathematical basis for the current fixture list which is why we are very confident in it.

"I'm not criticising Patrick, but we have done our own calculations and work through Project Enable and that's come out with a very clear answer on fixture numbers."

However, Horseracing Bettors Forum (HBF) Colin Hord said a lot of what Veitch had said "rings true for us".

The HBF did a survey earlier this year which found that 71 per cent of bettors felt there was too much racing.

Veitch also criticised the "endless diet of low-grade handicaps" in the racing schedule, a point also picked up by Hord.

He said: "The HBF recognises that the UK horse population is a pyramid structure where there are fewer top quality horses than average horses and as such there will always be more lower grade racing.

"The question that has to be asked is the base of the pyramid now too wide and are too many horses with very low handicap marks being catered for."

Read more:

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Demand driven - Irish fixture list grows organically but funding is the problem

Desert Orchid et al: midweek glories recalled on a trip down memory lane

Less is more: the evidence to support a bloated fixture list is non-existent

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