'Owners will lose interest' - northern trainers hit out at fixture allocation

Northern trainers have voiced their frustration after the two additional jumps fixtures in Britain this week were allocated to Hereford and Ffos Las.

With the fixture list ravaged by the cold snap, the BHA moved to put on three extra meetings, starting with an all-weather card at Kempton on Monday before Hereford on Wednesday and Ffos Las on Thursday.

The BHA applies geographic priority during the allocation of additional fixtures, which are put up for auction for eligible racecourses to bid for.

It has left trainers in Scotland and the north of England already reeling from lost chances to run their horses feeling like they have been given the cold shoulder.

The only jumps meeting north of Ludlow, in Shropshire, before Boxing Day is at Ayr on Thursday.

Fife trainer Nick Alexander said: "We've lost opportunities to run our horses and we need replacement opportunities. We've lost five or six fixtures over the last ten days and although there are races over Christmas, there aren't opportunities for all of the horses.

"While I'm sure each individual track probably has valid reasons for not wanting to put a fixture on, you would have thought someone could have maybe helped out. Owners want to run their horses for prize-money and if they can't they'll lose interest.

"It's not like the tracks have been heavily used with runners all autumn and it's a pretty disappointing reflection on the whole attitude. We have to get horses exercised every morning whatever the weather throws at us, we do it, and I'd like to see that reciprocated a bit."

Fellow trainer Sandy Thomson is based in the Scottish Borders and has not had a runner since December 5.

"It's frustrating when it always seems to be the south that gets the fixtures," he said. "It's not going to make a lot of difference to me this time, but I can understand people are frustrated.

"Like all these things you have to know the ins and outs, and I'd imagine a lot of the courses have big Christmas and new year meetings coming up."

Haydock, which lost Saturday's televised card, did not apply for a replacement fixture and clerk of the course Kirkland Tellwright pointed to the imminence of its next meeting on December 30 and the reduced revenue from replacement dates.

"We did look at it, when we knew we were abandoning the first reaction was 'can we hold it again?'" he said.

"But we couldn't make it work. Commercially it made no sense, with no sponsors or terrestrial television coverage, to plough up the track for no result then ask the ground staff to have it ready again on December 30."

Kelso also race soon after Christmas and managing director Jonathan Garratt said: "I'm pretty optimistic for December 29 but to try and schedule a meeting before then would be difficult.

"We're deeply frozen and still covered in snow. Although I'm pretty confident we'll get a thaw tomorrow, that's going to come with some rain and we might well be waterlogged immediately after that.

"And that's without thinking of any of the financial considerations - the finances of staging a replacement fixture like these are poor."

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