Sky Bet Sunday Series to return with six meetings in 2022

The Sky Bet Sunday Series will return in an expanded format next year with six meetings scheduled between May and August offering total prize-money of £1.2 million.

York, Hamilton and Pontefract will be the new courses involved for 2022 joining Musselburgh, Haydock and Sandown, which staged the three fixtures of the inaugural series in 2021.

With competitive racing for boosted prize-money shown on terrestrial television, the new initiative was generally well received, although concerns were raised over the impact of the late start time on Sundays on stable staff and jockeys.

The six seven-race Sunday cards will again have a twilight slot and be shown in their entirety on ITV4, with each of the fixtures worth £200,000.

Hamilton will kick off proceedings on May 8 with the other fixtures at York (May 22), Musselburgh (June 5), Pontefract (June 19), Haydock (August 7) and Sandown (August 21).

More than £200,000 worth of bonuses was on offer in 2021 and additional details of the 2022 series will be announced in the new year.

Grant Tuer, who was leading trainer of the series and earned a £10,000 bonus for his stable staff, said: "The Sky Bet Sunday Series was a most welcome, innovative introduction to the calendar in 2021, particularly as it was open to anyone who had a horse eligible to run in a variety of races on offer.

"I'm delighted to see it return for 2022. The prize-money is exceptional, as well as the bonuses on offer, and we were thrilled to win £10,000 for the stable last year by saddling the most winners and placed horses.

"The sport also gets a Sunday slot on ITV, which can only be good news in terms of getting more people interested in racing."

George McGrath: concerns about the impact of Sunday racing on stable staffCredit: Edward Whitaker

George McGrath, chief executive of the National Association of Racing Staff (Nars), has voiced concerns about Sunday racing and in September he described the year-on-year increase in weekend fixtures as a "slap in the face" for his members.

He believes more needs to be done to strike a balance. "It's important to recognise the financial contribution that comes from this series and the fact it gets ITV coverage is good, as are the bonuses for racing staff, trainers and jockeys.

"The problem is more industry-wide, it's not an ITV series problem. It's the fact we are staging more and more meetings on weekends and bank holidays, which is understandable from an economic perspective, but we have to start doing more to recognise the impact it is having on the staff from a mental and physical health perspective.

"I congratulate the Sunday Series for the prize-money they have put up, but we need to do more in terms of how we're going to ensure the staff have sufficient downtime."

The initial three-meeting series proved a hit with punters and bookmakers with a peak audience of 244,000 watching ITV Racing's coverage of the first fixture at Musselburgh and Betfair Sportsbook reporting turnover up 54 per cent on an average Sunday meeting.

Mark Trinder, director of commercial sales and partnerships at ITV, said: "After a successful first year we at ITV are very pleased to again collaborate with RMG and Sky Bet on this innovative raceday format for 2022. Adding to our already exclusive and extensive coverage, ITV is truly the 'Home of Racing'."

Sky Bet chief executive Steve Birch said: "Sky Bet are excited to continue our partnership with the Sunday Series next year. We have seen great customer demand for good quality racing on a Sunday evening and are delighted to expand the series to six meetings in 2022.

"The series was a great collaborative industry effort in 2021, and we are really looking forward to working closely again with RMG, ITV, the racecourses, and horsemen to put on another great show for racing."

Read more on the Sky Bet Sunday Series:

Grant Tuer crowned Sunday Series leading trainer after Lezardrieux win

Bookies call Sunday Series 'an absolute winner' after promising day one turnover

'It's an experiment' – first day of Sunday Series met with mixed feelings

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